Minimum positioning reference signal (PRS) processing when measurement gaps are not configured

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are techniques for wireless communication. In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) transmits, to a network entity, one or more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process positioning reference signals (PRS), the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE can process within a measurement window without a measurement gap, and performs one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRS resources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present Application for Patent claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 63/016,967, entitled “MINIMUM POSITIONINGREFERENCE SIGNAL (PRS) PROCESSING WHEN MEASUREMENT GAPS ARE NOTCONFIGURED,” filed Apr. 28, 2020, assigned to the assignee hereof, andexpressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE 1. Field of the Disclosure

Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to wireless communications.

2. Description of the Related Art

Wireless communication systems have developed through variousgenerations, including a first-generation analog wireless phone service(1G), a second-generation (2G) digital wireless phone service (includinginterim 2.5G and 2.75G networks), a third-generation (3G) high speeddata, Internet-capable wireless service and a fourth-generation (4G)service (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). There are presentlymany different types of wireless communication systems in use, includingcellular and personal communications service (PCS) systems. Examples ofknown cellular systems include the cellular analog advanced mobile phonesystem (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on code divisionmultiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), timedivision multiple access (TDMA), the Global System for Mobilecommunications (GSM), etc.

A fifth generation (5G) wireless standard, referred to as New Radio(NR), calls for higher data transfer speeds, greater numbers ofconnections, and better coverage, among other improvements. The 5Gstandard, according to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, isdesigned to provide data rates of several tens of megabits per second toeach of tens of thousands of users, with 1 gigabit per second to tens ofworkers on an office floor. Several hundreds of thousands ofsimultaneous connections should be supported in order to support largesensor deployments. Consequently, the spectral efficiency of 5G mobilecommunications should be significantly enhanced compared to the current4G standard. Furthermore, signaling efficiencies should be enhanced andlatency should be substantially reduced compared to current standards.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary relating to one or moreaspects disclosed herein. Thus, the following summary should not beconsidered an extensive overview relating to all contemplated aspects,nor should the following summary be considered to identify key orcritical elements relating to all contemplated aspects or to delineatethe scope associated with any particular aspect. Accordingly, thefollowing summary has the sole purpose to present certain conceptsrelating to one or more aspects relating to the mechanisms disclosedherein in a simplified form to precede the detailed descriptionpresented below.

In an aspect, a method of wireless communication performed by a userequipment (UE) includes transmitting, to a network entity, one or morecapability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE toprocess positioning reference signals (PRS), the one or morecapabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE canprocess within a measurement window without a measurement gap; andperforming one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRSresources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS.

In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes a memory; at least onetransceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to thememory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processorconfigured to: cause the at least one transceiver to transmit, to anetwork entity, one or more capability messages indicating one or morecapabilities of the UE to process positioning reference signals (PRS),the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS thatthe UE can process within a measurement window without a measurementgap; and perform one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRSresources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS.

In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes means for transmitting, toa network entity, one or more capability messages indicating one or morecapabilities of the UE to process positioning reference signals (PRS),the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS thatthe UE can process within a measurement window without a measurementgap; and means for performing one or more positioning measurements ofone or more PRS resources during the measurement window up to theduration of PRS.

In an aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment(UE), cause the UE to: transmit, to a network entity, one or morecapability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE toprocess positioning reference signals (PRS), the one or morecapabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE canprocess within a measurement window without a measurement gap; andperform one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRSresources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS.

Other objects and advantages associated with the aspects disclosedherein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on theaccompanying drawings and detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in the description ofvarious aspects of the disclosure and are provided solely forillustration of the aspects and not limitation thereof.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communications system, accordingto aspects of the disclosure.

FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate example wireless network structures,according to aspects of the disclosure.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C are simplified block diagrams of several sampleaspects of components that may be employed in a user equipment (UE), abase station, and a network entity, respectively, and configured tosupport communications as taught herein.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating example frame structures andchannels within the frame structures, according to aspects of thedisclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of an example positioning reference signal (PRS)configuration for the PRS transmissions of a given base station,according to aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of example PRS resource sets having different timegaps, according to aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example radio frequency (RF) signal processingprocedure, according to aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example PRS instance, according toaspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example method of wireless communication,according to aspects of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the disclosure are provided in the following description andrelated drawings directed to various examples provided for illustrationpurposes. Alternate aspects may be devised without departing from thescope of the disclosure. Additionally, well-known elements of thedisclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as notto obscure the relevant details of the disclosure.

The words “exemplary” and/or “example” are used herein to mean “servingas an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described hereinas “exemplary” and/or “example” is not necessarily to be construed aspreferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term“aspects of the disclosure” does not require that all aspects of thedisclosure include the discussed feature, advantage or mode ofoperation.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the information andsignals described below may be represented using any of a variety ofdifferent technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions,commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may bereferenced throughout the description below may be represented byvoltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles,optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof, depending inpart on the particular application, in part on the desired design, inpart on the corresponding technology, etc.

Further, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions tobe performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will berecognized that various actions described herein can be performed byspecific circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuits(ASICs)), by program instructions being executed by one or moreprocessors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, the sequence(s)of actions described herein can be considered to be embodied entirelywithin any form of non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumhaving stored therein a corresponding set of computer instructions that,upon execution, would cause or instruct an associated processor of adevice to perform the functionality described herein. Thus, the variousaspects of the disclosure may be embodied in a number of differentforms, all of which have been contemplated to be within the scope of theclaimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the aspects describedherein, the corresponding form of any such aspects may be describedherein as, for example, “logic configured to” perform the describedaction.

As used herein, the terms “user equipment” (UE) and “base station” arenot intended to be specific or otherwise limited to any particular radioaccess technology (RAT), unless otherwise noted. In general, a UE may beany wireless communication device (e.g., a mobile phone, router, tabletcomputer, laptop computer, consumer asset locating device, wearable(e.g., smartwatch, glasses, augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR)headset, etc.), vehicle (e.g., automobile, motorcycle, bicycle, etc.),Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.) used by a user to communicateover a wireless communications network. A UE may be mobile or may (e.g.,at certain times) be stationary, and may communicate with a radio accessnetwork (RAN). As used herein, the term “UE” may be referred tointerchangeably as an “access terminal” or “AT,” a “client device,” a“wireless device,” a “subscriber device,” a “subscriber terminal,” a“subscriber station,” a “user terminal” or “UT,” a “mobile device,” a“mobile terminal,” a “mobile station,” or variations thereof. Generally,UEs can communicate with a core network via a RAN, and through the corenetwork the UEs can be connected with external networks such as theInternet and with other UEs. Of course, other mechanisms of connectingto the core network and/or the Internet are also possible for the UEs,such as over wired access networks, wireless local area network (WLAN)networks (e.g., based on the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, etc.) and so on.

A base station may operate according to one of several RATs incommunication with UEs depending on the network in which it is deployed,and may be alternatively referred to as an access point (AP), a networknode, a NodeB, an evolved NodeB (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), aNew Radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as a gNB or gNodeB), etc. A basestation may be used primarily to support wireless access by UEs,including supporting data, voice, and/or signaling connections for thesupported UEs. In some systems a base station may provide purely edgenode signaling functions while in other systems it may provideadditional control and/or network management functions. A communicationlink through which UEs can send signals to a base station is called anuplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse controlchannel, an access channel, etc.). A communication link through whichthe base station can send signals to UEs is called a downlink (DL) orforward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, abroadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein theterm traffic channel (TCH) can refer to either an uplink/reverse ordownlink/forward traffic channel.

The term “base station” may refer to a single physicaltransmission-reception point (TRP) or to multiple physical TRPs that mayor may not be co-located. For example, where the term “base station”refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP may be an antenna ofthe base station corresponding to a cell (or several cell sectors) ofthe base station. Where the term “base station” refers to multipleco-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs may be an array of antennas(e.g., as in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system or where thebase station employs beamforming) of the base station. Where the term“base station” refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, thephysical TRPs may be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network ofspatially separated antennas connected to a common source via atransport medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base stationconnected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-co-locatedphysical TRPs may be the serving base station receiving the measurementreport from the UE and a neighbor base station whose reference radiofrequency (RF) signals the UE is measuring. Because a TRP is the pointfrom which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, asused herein, references to transmission from or reception at a basestation are to be understood as referring to a particular TRP of thebase station.

In some implementations that support positioning of UEs, a base stationmay not support wireless access by UEs (e.g., may not support data,voice, and/or signaling connections for UEs), but may instead transmitreference signals to UEs to be measured by the UEs, and/or may receiveand measure signals transmitted by the UEs. Such a base station may bereferred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., when transmitting signals toUEs) and/or as a location measurement unit (e.g., when receiving andmeasuring signals from UEs).

An “RF signal” comprises an electromagnetic wave of a given frequencythat transports information through the space between a transmitter anda receiver. As used herein, a transmitter may transmit a single “RFsignal” or multiple “RF signals” to a receiver. However, the receivermay receive multiple “RF signals” corresponding to each transmitted RFsignal due to the propagation characteristics of RF signals throughmultipath channels. The same transmitted RF signal on different pathsbetween the transmitter and receiver may be referred to as a “multipath”RF signal.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communications system 100,according to aspects of the disclosure. The wireless communicationssystem 100 (which may also be referred to as a wireless wide areanetwork (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 (labeled “BS”) andvarious UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macro cell basestations (high power cellular base stations) and/or small cell basestations (low power cellular base stations). In an aspect, the macrocell base stations may include eNBs and/or ng-eNBs where the wirelesscommunications system 100 corresponds to an LTE network, or gNBs wherethe wireless communications system 100 corresponds to a NR network, or acombination of both, and the small cell base stations may includefemtocells, picocells, microcells, etc.

The base stations 102 may collectively form a RAN and interface with acore network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC))through backhaul links 122, and through the core network 170 to one ormore location servers 172 (e.g., a location management function (LMF) ora secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP)). Thelocation server(s) 172 may be part of core network 170 or may beexternal to core network 170. In addition to other functions, the basestations 102 may perform functions that relate to one or more oftransferring user data, radio channel ciphering and deciphering,integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions(e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interferencecoordination, connection setup and release, load balancing, distributionfor non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection,synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service(MBMS), subscriber and equipment trace, RAN information management(RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of warning messages. The basestations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly(e.g., through the EPC/5GC) over backhaul links 134, which may be wiredor wireless.

The base stations 102 may wirelessly communicate with the UEs 104. Eachof the base stations 102 may provide communication coverage for arespective geographic coverage area 110. In an aspect, one or more cellsmay be supported by a base station 102 in each geographic coverage area110. A “cell” is a logical communication entity used for communicationwith a base station (e.g., over some frequency resource, referred to asa carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, band, or the like), andmay be associated with an identifier (e.g., a physical cell identifier(PCI), an enhanced cell identifier (ECI), a virtual cell identifier(VCI), a cell global identifier (CGI), etc.) for distinguishing cellsoperating via the same or a different carrier frequency. In some cases,different cells may be configured according to different protocol types(e.g., machine-type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT),enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or others) that may provide access fordifferent types of UEs. Because a cell is supported by a specific basestation, the term “cell” may refer to either or both of the logicalcommunication entity and the base station that supports it, depending onthe context. In addition, because a TRP is typically the physicaltransmission point of a cell, the terms “cell” and “TRP” may be usedinterchangeably. In some cases, the term “cell” may also refer to ageographic coverage area of a base station (e.g., a sector), insofar asa carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication withinsome portion of geographic coverage areas 110.

While neighboring macro cell base station 102 geographic coverage areas110 may partially overlap (e.g., in a handover region), some of thegeographic coverage areas 110 may be substantially overlapped by alarger geographic coverage area 110. For example, a small cell basestation 102′ (labeled “SC” for “small cell”) may have a geographiccoverage area 110′ that substantially overlaps with the geographiccoverage area 110 of one or more macro cell base stations 102. A networkthat includes both small cell and macro cell base stations may be knownas a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also includehome eNBs (HeNBs), which may provide service to a restricted group knownas a closed subscriber group (CSG).

The communication links 120 between the base stations 102 and the UEs104 may include uplink (also referred to as reverse link) transmissionsfrom a UE 104 to a base station 102 and/or downlink (DL) (also referredto as forward link) transmissions from a base station 102 to a UE 104.The communication links 120 may use MIMO antenna technology, includingspatial multiplexing, beamforming, and/or transmit diversity. Thecommunication links 120 may be through one or more carrier frequencies.Allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to downlink anduplink (e.g., more or less carriers may be allocated for downlink thanfor uplink).

The wireless communications system 100 may further include a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN) access point (AP) 150 in communication withWLAN stations (STAs) 152 via communication links 154 in an unlicensedfrequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in an unlicensedfrequency spectrum, the WLAN STAs 152 and/or the WLAN AP 150 may performa clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen before talk (LBT) procedureprior to communicating in order to determine whether the channel isavailable.

The small cell base station 102′ may operate in a licensed and/or anunlicensed frequency spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed frequencyspectrum, the small cell base station 102′ may employ LTE or NRtechnology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum as usedby the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102′, employing LTE/5Gin an unlicensed frequency spectrum, may boost coverage to and/orincrease capacity of the access network. NR in unlicensed spectrum maybe referred to as NR-U. LTE in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred toas LTE-U, licensed assisted access (LAA), or MulteFire.

The wireless communications system 100 may further include a millimeterwave (mmW) base station 180 that may operate in mmW frequencies and/ornear mmW frequencies in communication with a UE 182. Extremely highfrequency (EHF) is part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. EHFhas a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 millimeterand 10 millimeters. Radio waves in this band may be referred to as amillimeter wave. Near mmW may extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with awavelength of 100 millimeters. The super high frequency (SHF) bandextends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, also referred to as centimeter wave.Communications using the mmW/near mmW radio frequency band have highpath loss and a relatively short range. The mmW base station 180 and theUE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmit and/or receive) over a mmWcommunication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path lossand short range. Further, it will be appreciated that in alternativeconfigurations, one or more base stations 102 may also transmit usingmmW or near mmW and beamforming. Accordingly, it will be appreciatedthat the foregoing illustrations are merely examples and should not beconstrued to limit the various aspects disclosed herein.

Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing an RF signal in aspecific direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a basestation) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal in alldirections (omni-directionally). With transmit beamforming, the networknode determines where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located(relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a strongerdownlink RF signal in that specific direction, thereby providing afaster (in terms of data rate) and stronger RF signal for the receivingdevice(s). To change the directionality of the RF signal whentransmitting, a network node can control the phase and relativeamplitude of the RF signal at each of the one or more transmitters thatare broadcasting the RF signal. For example, a network node may use anarray of antennas (referred to as a “phased array” or an “antennaarray”) that creates a beam of RF waves that can be “steered” to pointin different directions, without actually moving the antennas.Specifically, the RF current from the transmitter is fed to theindividual antennas with the correct phase relationship so that theradio waves from the separate antennas add together to increase theradiation in a desired direction, while cancelling to suppress radiationin undesired directions.

Transmit beams may be quasi-co-located, meaning that they appear to thereceiver (e.g., a UE) as having the same parameters, regardless ofwhether or not the transmitting antennas of the network node themselvesare physically co-located. In NR, there are four types ofquasi-co-location (QCL) relations. Specifically, a QCL relation of agiven type means that certain parameters about a second reference RFsignal on a second beam can be derived from information about a sourcereference RF signal on a source beam. Thus, if the source reference RFsignal is QCL Type A, the receiver can use the source reference RFsignal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, anddelay spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the samechannel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type B, the receivercan use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift andDoppler spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the samechannel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type C, the receivercan use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift andaverage delay of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the samechannel. If the source reference RF signal is QCL Type D, the receivercan use the source reference RF signal to estimate the spatial receiveparameter of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the samechannel.

In receive beamforming, the receiver uses a receive beam to amplify RFsignals detected on a given channel. For example, the receiver canincrease the gain setting and/or adjust the phase setting of an array ofantennas in a particular direction to amplify (e.g., to increase thegain level of) the RF signals received from that direction. Thus, when areceiver is said to beamform in a certain direction, it means the beamgain in that direction is high relative to the beam gain along otherdirections, or the beam gain in that direction is the highest comparedto the beam gain in that direction of all other receive beams availableto the receiver. This results in a stronger received signal strength(e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal receivedquality (RSRQ), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), etc.) ofthe RF signals received from that direction.

Transmit and receive beams may be spatially related. A spatial relationmeans that parameters for a second beam (e.g., a transmit or receivebeam) for a second reference signal can be derived from informationabout a first beam (e.g., a receive beam or a transmit beam) for a firstreference signal. For example, a UE may use a particular receive beam toreceive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., synchronizationsignal block (SSB)) from a base station. The UE can then form a transmitbeam for sending an uplink reference signal (e.g., sounding referencesignal (SRS)) to that base station based on the parameters of thereceive beam.

Note that a “downlink” beam may be either a transmit beam or a receivebeam, depending on the entity forming it. For example, if a base stationis forming the downlink beam to transmit a reference signal to a UE, thedownlink beam is a transmit beam. If the UE is forming the downlinkbeam, however, it is a receive beam to receive the downlink referencesignal. Similarly, an “uplink” beam may be either a transmit beam or areceive beam, depending on the entity forming it. For example, if a basestation is forming the uplink beam, it is an uplink receive beam, and ifa UE is forming the uplink beam, it is an uplink transmit beam.

In 5G, the frequency spectrum in which wireless nodes (e.g., basestations 102/180, UEs 104/182) operate is divided into multiplefrequency ranges, FR1 (from 450 to 6000 MHz), FR2 (from 24250 to 52600MHz), FR3 (above 52600 MHz), and FR4 (between FR1 and FR2). mmWfrequency bands generally include the FR2, FR3, and FR4 frequencyranges. As such, the terms “mmW” and “FR2” or “FR3” or “FR4” maygenerally be used interchangeably.

In a multi-carrier system, such as 5G, one of the carrier frequencies isreferred to as the “primary carrier” or “anchor carrier” or “primaryserving cell” or “PCell,” and the remaining carrier frequencies arereferred to as “secondary carriers” or “secondary serving cells” or“SCells.” In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is the carrieroperating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) utilized by a UE 104/182and the cell in which the UE 104/182 either performs the initial radioresource control (RRC) connection establishment procedure or initiatesthe RRC connection re-establishment procedure. The primary carriercarries all common and UE-specific control channels, and may be acarrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case).A secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g.,FR2) that may be configured once the RRC connection is establishedbetween the UE 104 and the anchor carrier and that may be used toprovide additional radio resources. In some cases, the secondary carriermay be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier maycontain only necessary signaling information and signals, for example,those that are UE-specific may not be present in the secondary carrier,since both primary uplink and downlink carriers are typicallyUE-specific. This means that different UEs 104/182 in a cell may havedifferent downlink primary carriers. The same is true for the uplinkprimary carriers. The network is able to change the primary carrier ofany UE 104/182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance theload on different carriers. Because a “serving cell” (whether a PCell oran SCell) corresponds to a carrier frequency/component carrier overwhich some base station is communicating, the term “cell,” “servingcell,” “component carrier,” “carrier frequency,” and the like can beused interchangeably.

For example, still referring to FIG. 1 , one of the frequencies utilizedby the macro cell base stations 102 may be an anchor carrier (or“PCell”) and other frequencies utilized by the macro cell base stations102 and/or the mmW base station 180 may be secondary carriers(“SCells”). The simultaneous transmission and/or reception of multiplecarriers enables the UE 104/182 to significantly increase its datatransmission and/or reception rates. For example, two 20 MHz aggregatedcarriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically lead to atwo-fold increase in data rate (i.e., 40 MHz), compared to that attainedby a single 20 MHz carrier.

The wireless communications system 100 may further include a UE 164 thatmay communicate with a macro cell base station 102 over a communicationlink 120 and/or the mmW base station 180 over a mmW communication link184. For example, the macro cell base station 102 may support a PCelland one or more SCells for the UE 164 and the mmW base station 180 maysupport one or more SCells for the UE 164.

In the example of FIG. 1 , one or more Earth orbiting satellitepositioning system (SPS) space vehicles (SVs) 112 (e.g., satellites) maybe used as an independent source of location information for any of theillustrated UEs (shown in FIG. 1 as a single UE 104 for simplicity). AUE 104 may include one or more dedicated SPS receivers specificallydesigned to receive SPS signals 124 for deriving geo locationinformation from the SVs 112. An SPS typically includes a system oftransmitters (e.g., SVs 112) positioned to enable receivers (e.g., UEs104) to determine their location on or above the Earth based, at leastin part, on signals (e.g., SPS signals 124) received from thetransmitters. Such a transmitter typically transmits a signal markedwith a repeating pseudo-random noise (PN) code of a set number of chips.While typically located in SVs 112, transmitters may sometimes belocated on ground-based control stations, base stations 102, and/orother UEs 104.

The use of SPS signals 124 can be augmented by various satellite-basedaugmentation systems (SBAS) that may be associated with or otherwiseenabled for use with one or more global and/or regional navigationsatellite systems. For example an SBAS may include an augmentationsystem(s) that provides integrity information, differential corrections,etc., such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the EuropeanGeostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the Multi-functionalSatellite Augmentation System (MSAS), the Global Positioning System(GPS) Aided Geo Augmented Navigation or GPS and Geo Augmented Navigationsystem (GAGAN), and/or the like. Thus, as used herein, an SPS mayinclude any combination of one or more global and/or regional navigationsatellite systems and/or augmentation systems, and SPS signals 124 mayinclude SPS, SPS-like, and/or other signals associated with such one ormore SPS.

The wireless communications system 100 may further include one or moreUEs, such as UE 190, that connects indirectly to one or morecommunication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D)peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as “sidelinks”). In the example ofFIG. 1 , UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of the UEs 104 connectedto one of the base stations 102 (e.g., through which UE 190 mayindirectly obtain cellular connectivity) and a D2D P2P link 194 withWLAN STA 152 connected to the WLAN AP 150 (through which UE 190 mayindirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity). In an example, theD2D P2P links 192 and 194 may be supported with any well-known D2D RAT,such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, and so on.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example wireless network structure 200. Forexample, a 5GC 210 (also referred to as a Next Generation Core (NGC))can be viewed functionally as control plane (C-plane) functions 214(e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gatewayselection, etc.) and user plane (U-plane) functions 212, (e.g., UEgateway function, access to data networks, IP routing, etc.) whichoperate cooperatively to form the core network. User plane interface(NG-U) 213 and control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 tothe 5GC 210 and specifically to the user plane functions 212 and controlplane functions 214, respectively. In an additional configuration, anng-eNB 224 may also be connected to the 5GC 210 via NG-C 215 to thecontrol plane functions 214 and NG-U 213 to user plane functions 212.Further, ng-eNB 224 may directly communicate with gNB 222 via a backhaulconnection 223. In some configurations, a Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN)220 may have one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations includeone or more of both ng-eNBs 224 and gNBs 222. Either (or both) gNB 222or ng-eNB 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of theUEs described herein).

Another optional aspect may include a location server 230, which may bein communication with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance forUE(s) 204. The location server 230 can be implemented as a plurality ofseparate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different softwaremodules on a single server, different software modules spread acrossmultiple physical servers, etc.), or alternately may each correspond toa single server. The location server 230 can be configured to supportone or more location services for UEs 204 that can connect to thelocation server 230 via the core network, 5GC 210, and/or via theInternet (not illustrated). Further, the location server 230 may beintegrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively may beexternal to the core network (e.g., a third party server, such as anoriginal equipment manufacturer (OEM) server or service server).

FIG. 2B illustrates another example wireless network structure 250. A5GC 260 (which may correspond to 5GC 210 in FIG. 2A) can be viewedfunctionally as control plane functions, provided by an access andmobility management function (AMF) 264, and user plane functions,provided by a user plane function (UPF) 262, which operate cooperativelyto form the core network (i.e., 5GC 260). The functions of the AMF 264include registration management, connection management, reachabilitymanagement, mobility management, lawful interception, transport forsession management (SM) messages between one or more UEs 204 (e.g., anyof the UEs described herein) and a session management function (SMF)266, transparent proxy services for routing SM messages, accessauthentication and access authorization, transport for short messageservice (SMS) messages between the UE 204 and the short message servicefunction (SMSF) (not shown), and security anchor functionality (SEAF).The AMF 264 also interacts with an authentication server function (AUSF)(not shown) and the UE 204, and receives the intermediate key that wasestablished as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In thecase of authentication based on a UMTS (universal mobiletelecommunications system) subscriber identity module (USIM), the AMF264 retrieves the security material from the AUSF. The functions of theAMF 264 also include security context management (SCM). The SCM receivesa key from the SEAF that it uses to derive access-network specific keys.The functionality of the AMF 264 also includes location servicesmanagement for regulatory services, transport for location servicesmessages between the UE 204 and a location management function (LMF) 270(which acts as a location server 230), transport for location servicesmessages between the NG-RAN 220 and the LMF 270, evolved packet system(EPS) bearer identifier allocation for interworking with the EPS, and UE204 mobility event notification. In addition, the AMF 264 also supportsfunctionalities for non-3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project)access networks.

Functions of the UPF 262 include acting as an anchor point forintra-/inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an externalprotocol data unit (PDU) session point of interconnect to a data network(not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection,user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, trafficsteering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usagereporting, quality of service (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g.,uplink/downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in thedownlink), uplink traffic verification (service data flow (SDF) to QoSflow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink anddownlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notificationtriggering, and sending and forwarding of one or more “end markers” tothe source RAN node. The UPF 262 may also support transfer of locationservices messages over a user plane between the UE 204 and a locationserver, such as an SLP 272.

The functions of the SMF 266 include session management, UE Internetprotocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and controlof user plane functions, configuration of traffic steering at the UPF262 to route traffic to the proper destination, control of part ofpolicy enforcement and QoS, and downlink data notification. Theinterface over which the SMF 266 communicates with the AMF 264 isreferred to as the N11 interface.

Another optional aspect may include an LMF 270, which may be incommunication with the 5GC 260 to provide location assistance for UEs204. The LMF 270 can be implemented as a plurality of separate servers(e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on asingle server, different software modules spread across multiplephysical servers, etc.), or alternately may each correspond to a singleserver. The LMF 270 can be configured to support one or more locationservices for UEs 204 that can connect to the LMF 270 via the corenetwork, 5GC 260, and/or via the Internet (not illustrated). The SLP 272may support similar functions to the LMF 270, but whereas the LMF 270may communicate with the AMF 264, NG-RAN 220, and UEs 204 over a controlplane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to convey signalingmessages and not voice or data), the SLP 272 may communicate with UEs204 and external clients (not shown in FIG. 2B) over a user plane (e.g.,using protocols intended to carry voice and/or data like thetransmission control protocol (TCP) and/or IP).

User plane interface 263 and control plane interface 265 connect the 5GC260, and specifically the UPF 262 and AMF 264, respectively, to one ormore gNBs 222 and/or ng-eNBs 224 in the NG-RAN 220. The interfacebetween gNB(s) 222 and/or ng-eNB(s) 224 and the AMF 264 is referred toas the “N2” interface, and the interface between gNB(s) 222 and/orng-eNB(s) 224 and the UPF 262 is referred to as the “N3” interface. ThegNB(s) 222 and/or ng-eNB(s) 224 of the NG-RAN 220 may communicatedirectly with each other via backhaul connections 223, referred to asthe “Xn-C” interface. One or more of gNBs 222 and/or ng-eNBs 224 maycommunicate with one or more UEs 204 over a wireless interface, referredto as the “Uu” interface.

The functionality of a gNB 222 is divided between a gNB central unit(gNB-CU) 226 and one or more gNB distributed units (gNB-DUs) 228. Theinterface 232 between the gNB-CU 226 and the one or more gNB-DUs 228 isreferred to as the “F1” interface. A gNB-CU 226 is a logical node thatincludes the base station functions of transferring user data, mobilitycontrol, radio access network sharing, positioning, session management,and the like, except for those functions allocated exclusively to thegNB-DU(s) 228. More specifically, the gNB-CU 226 hosts the radioresource control (RRC), service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), andpacket data convergence protocol (PDCP) protocols of the gNB 222. AgNB-DU 228 is a logical node that hosts the radio link control (RLC),medium access control (MAC), and physical (PHY) layers of the gNB 222.Its operation is controlled by the gNB-CU 226. One gNB-DU 228 cansupport one or more cells, and one cell is supported by only one gNB-DU228. Thus, a UE 204 communicates with the gNB-CU 226 via the RRC, SDAP,and PDCP layers and with a gNB-DU 228 via the RLC, MAC, and PHY layers.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C illustrate several example components (representedby corresponding blocks) that may be incorporated into a UE 302 (whichmay correspond to any of the UEs described herein), a base station 304(which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein), anda network entity 306 (which may correspond to or embody any of thenetwork functions described herein, including the location server 230and the LMF 270, or alternatively may be independent from the NG-RAN 220and/or 5GC 210/260 infrastructure depicted in FIGS. 2A and 2B, such as aprivate network) to support the file transmission operations as taughtherein. It will be appreciated that these components may be implementedin different types of apparatuses in different implementations (e.g., inan ASIC, in a system-on-chip (SoC), etc.). The illustrated componentsmay also be incorporated into other apparatuses in a communicationsystem. For example, other apparatuses in a system may includecomponents similar to those described to provide similar functionality.Also, a given apparatus may contain one or more of the components. Forexample, an apparatus may include multiple transceiver components thatenable the apparatus to operate on multiple carriers and/or communicatevia different technologies.

The UE 302 and the base station 304 each include one or more wirelesswide area network (WWAN) transceivers 310 and 350, respectively,providing means for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, meansfor receiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means forrefraining from transmitting, etc.) via one or more wirelesscommunication networks (not shown), such as an NR network, an LTEnetwork, a GSM network, and/or the like. The WWAN transceivers 310 and350 may each be connected to one or more antennas 316 and 356,respectively, for communicating with other network nodes, such as otherUEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc., via at leastone designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) over a wirelesscommunication medium of interest (e.g., some set of time/frequencyresources in a particular frequency spectrum). The WWAN transceivers 310and 350 may be variously configured for transmitting and encodingsignals 318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, and soon), respectively, and, conversely, for receiving and decoding signals318 and 358 (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, and soon), respectively, in accordance with the designated RAT. Specifically,the WWAN transceivers 310 and 350 include one or more transmitters 314and 354, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals 318 and358, respectively, and one or more receivers 312 and 352, respectively,for receiving and decoding signals 318 and 358, respectively.

The UE 302 and the base station 304 each also include, at least in somecases, one or more short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360,respectively. The short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360 may beconnected to one or more antennas 326 and 366, respectively, and providemeans for communicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means forreceiving, means for measuring, means for tuning, means for refrainingfrom transmitting, etc.) with other network nodes, such as other UEs,access points, base stations, etc., via at least one designated RAT(e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, Bluetooth®, Zigbee®, Z-Wave®, PCS, dedicatedshort-range communications (DSRC), wireless access for vehicularenvironments (WAVE), near-field communication (NFC), etc.) over awireless communication medium of interest. The short-range wirelesstransceivers 320 and 360 may be variously configured for transmittingand encoding signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications,information, and so on), respectively, and, conversely, for receivingand decoding signals 328 and 368 (e.g., messages, indications,information, pilots, and so on), respectively, in accordance with thedesignated RAT. Specifically, the short-range wireless transceivers 320and 360 include one or more transmitters 324 and 364, respectively, fortransmitting and encoding signals 328 and 368, respectively, and one ormore receivers 322 and 362, respectively, for receiving and decodingsignals 328 and 368, respectively. As specific examples, the short-rangewireless transceivers 320 and 360 may be WiFi transceivers, Bluetooth®transceivers, Zigbee® and/or Z-Wave® transceivers, NFC transceivers, orvehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and/or vehicle-to-everything (V2X)transceivers.

The UE 302 and the base station 304 also include, at least in somecases, satellite positioning systems (SPS) receivers 330 and 370. TheSPS receivers 330 and 370 may be connected to one or more antennas 336and 376, respectively, and may provide means for receiving and/ormeasuring SPS signals 338 and 378, respectively, such as globalpositioning system (GPS) signals, global navigation satellite system(GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, Beidou signals, Indian RegionalNavigation Satellite System (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System(QZSS), etc. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 may comprise any suitablehardware and/or software for receiving and processing SPS signals 338and 378, respectively. The SPS receivers 330 and 370 request informationand operations as appropriate from the other systems, and performscalculations necessary to determine positions of the UE 302 and the basestation 304 using measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithm.

The base station 304 and the network entity 306 each include one or morenetwork transceivers 380 and 390, respectively, providing means forcommunicating (e.g., means for transmitting, means for receiving, etc.)with other network entities (e.g., other base stations 304, othernetwork entities 306). For example, the base station 304 may employ thenetwork transceiver 380 to communicate with other base stations 304 ornetwork entities 306 over one or more wired or wireless backhaul links.As another example, the network entity 306 may employ the networktransceiver 390 to communicate with one or more base station 304 overone or more wired or wireless backhaul links, or with other networkentities 306 over one or more wired or wireless core network interfaces.

A transceiver may be configured to communicate over a wired or wirelesslink. A transceiver (whether a wired transceiver or a wirelesstransceiver) includes transmitter circuitry (e.g., transmitters 314,324, 354, 364) and receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352,362). A transceiver may be an integrated device (e.g., embodyingtransmitter circuitry and receiver circuitry in a single device) in someimplementations, may comprise separate transmitter circuitry andseparate receiver circuitry in some implementations, or may be embodiedin other ways in other implementations. The transmitter circuitry andreceiver circuitry of a wired transceiver (e.g., network transceivers380 and 390 in some implementations) may be coupled to one or more wirednetwork interface ports. Wireless transmitter circuitry (e.g.,transmitters 314, 324, 354, 364) may include or be coupled to aplurality of antennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as anantenna array, that permits the respective apparatus (e.g., UE 302, basestation 304) to perform transmit “beamforming,” as described herein.Similarly, wireless receiver circuitry (e.g., receivers 312, 322, 352,362) may include or be coupled to a plurality of antennas (e.g.,antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such as an antenna array, that permits therespective apparatus (e.g., UE 302, base station 304) to perform receivebeamforming, as described herein. In an aspect, the transmittercircuitry and receiver circuitry may share the same plurality ofantennas (e.g., antennas 316, 326, 356, 366), such that the respectiveapparatus can only receive or transmit at a given time, not both at thesame time. A wireless transceiver (e.g., WWAN transceivers 310 and 350,short-range wireless transceivers 320 and 360) may also include anetwork listen module (NLM) or the like for performing variousmeasurements.

As used herein, the various wireless transceivers (e.g., transceivers310, 320, 350, and 360, and network transceivers 380 and 390 in someimplementations) and wired transceivers (e.g., network transceivers 380and 390 in some implementations) may generally be characterized as “atransceiver,” “at least one transceiver,” “one or more transceivers.” Assuch, whether a particular transceiver is a wired or wirelesstransceiver may be inferred from the type of communication performed.For example, backhaul communication between network devices or serverswill generally relate to signaling via a wired transceiver, whereaswireless communication between a UE (e.g., UE 302) and a base station(e.g., base station 304) will generally relate to signaling via awireless transceiver.

The UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 alsoinclude other components that may be used in conjunction with theoperations as disclosed herein. The UE 302, the base station 304, andthe network entity 306 include one or more processors 332, 384, and 394,respectively, for providing functionality relating to, for example,wireless communication, and for providing other processingfunctionality. The processors 332, 384, and 394 may therefore providemeans for processing, such as means for determining, means forcalculating, means for receiving, means for transmitting, means forindicating, etc. In an aspect, the processors 332, 384, and 394 mayinclude, for example, one or more general purpose processors, multi-coreprocessors, central processing units (CPUs), ASICs, digital signalprocessors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), otherprogrammable logic devices or processing circuitry, or variouscombinations thereof.

The UE 302, the base station 304, and the network entity 306 includememory circuitry implementing memories 340, 386, and 396 (e.g., eachincluding a memory device), respectively, for maintaining information(e.g., information indicative of reserved resources, thresholds,parameters, and so on). The memories 340, 386, and 396 may thereforeprovide means for storing, means for retrieving, means for maintaining,etc. In some cases, the UE 302, the base station 304, and the networkentity 306 may include positioning components 342, 388, and 398,respectively. The positioning components 342, 388, and 398 may behardware circuits that are part of or coupled to the processors 332,384, and 394, respectively, that, when executed, cause the UE 302, thebase station 304, and the network entity 306 to perform thefunctionality described herein. In other aspects, the positioningcomponents 342, 388, and 398 may be external to the processors 332, 384,and 394 (e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated withanother processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the positioningcomponents 342, 388, and 398 may be memory modules stored in thememories 340, 386, and 396, respectively, that, when executed by theprocessors 332, 384, and 394 (or a modem processing system, anotherprocessing system, etc.), cause the UE 302, the base station 304, andthe network entity 306 to perform the functionality described herein.FIG. 3A illustrates possible locations of the positioning component 342,which may be, for example, part of the WWAN transceiver 310, the memory340, the processor 332, or any combination thereof, or may be astandalone component. FIG. 3B illustrates possible locations of thepositioning component 388, which may be, for example, part of the WWANtransceiver 350, the memory 386, the processor 384, or any combinationthereof, or may be a standalone component. FIG. 3C illustrates possiblelocations of the positioning component 398, which may be, for example,part of the network transceiver 390, the memory 396, the processor 394,or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component.

The UE 302 may include one or more sensors 344 coupled to the processor332 to provide means for sensing or detecting movement and/ororientation information that is independent of motion data derived fromsignals received by the WWAN transceiver 310, the short-range wirelesstransceiver 320, and/or the SPS receiver 330. By way of example, thesensor(s) 344 may include an accelerometer (e.g., a micro-electricalmechanical systems (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor(e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric pressure altimeter),and/or any other type of movement detection sensor. Moreover, thesensor(s) 344 may include a plurality of different types of devices andcombine their outputs in order to provide motion information. Forexample, the sensor(s) 344 may use a combination of a multi-axisaccelerometer and orientation sensors to provide the ability to computepositions in two-dimensional (2D) and/or three-dimensional (3D)coordinate systems.

In addition, the UE 302 includes a user interface 346 providing meansfor providing indications (e.g., audible and/or visual indications) to auser and/or for receiving user input (e.g., upon user actuation of asensing device such a keypad, a touch screen, a microphone, and so on).Although not shown, the base station 304 and the network entity 306 mayalso include user interfaces.

Referring to the processor 384 in more detail, in the downlink, IPpackets from the network entity 306 may be provided to the processor384. The processor 384 may implement functionality for an RRC layer, apacket data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control(RLC) layer, and a medium access control (MAC) layer. The processor 384may provide RRC layer functionality associated with broadcasting ofsystem information (e.g., master information block (MIB), systeminformation blocks (SIBs)), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connectionpaging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, andRRC connection release), inter-RAT mobility, and measurementconfiguration for UE measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionalityassociated with header compression/decompression, security (ciphering,deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handoversupport functions; RLC layer functionality associated with the transferof upper layer PDUs, error correction through automatic repeat request(ARQ), concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC service dataunits (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and reordering of RLCdata PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping betweenlogical channels and transport channels, scheduling informationreporting, error correction, priority handling, and logical channelprioritization.

The transmitter 354 and the receiver 352 may implement Layer-1 (L1)functionality associated with various signal processing functions.Layer-1, which includes a physical (PHY) layer, may include errordetection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC)coding/decoding of the transport channels, interleaving, rate matching,mapping onto physical channels, modulation/demodulation of physicalchannels, and MIMO antenna processing. The transmitter 354 handlesmapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes(e.g., binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase-shift keying(QPSK), M-phase-shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation(M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split intoparallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to an orthogonalfrequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier, multiplexed with areference signal (e.g., pilot) in the time and/or frequency domain, andthen combined together using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) toproduce a physical channel carrying a time domain OFDM symbol stream.The OFDM symbol stream is spatially precoded to produce multiple spatialstreams. Channel estimates from a channel estimator may be used todetermine the coding and modulation scheme, as well as for spatialprocessing. The channel estimate may be derived from a reference signaland/or channel condition feedback transmitted by the UE 302. Eachspatial stream may then be provided to one or more different antennas356. The transmitter 354 may modulate an RF carrier with a respectivespatial stream for transmission.

At the UE 302, the receiver 312 receives a signal through its respectiveantenna(s) 316. The receiver 312 recovers information modulated onto anRF carrier and provides the information to the processor 332. Thetransmitter 314 and the receiver 312 implement Layer-1 functionalityassociated with various signal processing functions. The receiver 312may perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatialstreams destined for the UE 302. If multiple spatial streams aredestined for the UE 302, they may be combined by the receiver 312 into asingle OFDM symbol stream. The receiver 312 then converts the OFDMsymbol stream from the time-domain to the frequency domain using a fastFourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal comprises aseparate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. Thesymbols on each subcarrier, and the reference signal, are recovered anddemodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation pointstransmitted by the base station 304. These soft decisions may be basedon channel estimates computed by a channel estimator. The soft decisionsare then decoded and de-interleaved to recover the data and controlsignals that were originally transmitted by the base station 304 on thephysical channel. The data and control signals are then provided to theprocessor 332, which implements Layer-3 (L3) and Layer-2 (L2)functionality.

In the uplink, the processor 332 provides demultiplexing betweentransport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, headerdecompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets fromthe core network. The processor 332 is also responsible for errordetection.

Similar to the functionality described in connection with the downlinktransmission by the base station 304, the processor 332 provides RRClayer functionality associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIBs)acquisition, RRC connections, and measurement reporting; PDCP layerfunctionality associated with header compression/decompression, andsecurity (ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrityverification); RLC layer functionality associated with the transfer ofupper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ, concatenation,segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC dataPDUs, and reordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionalityassociated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels,multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto transport blocks (TBs), demultiplexing ofMAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correctionthrough hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD), priority handling, andlogical channel prioritization.

Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from a referencesignal or feedback transmitted by the base station 304 may be used bythe transmitter 314 to select the appropriate coding and modulationschemes, and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streamsgenerated by the transmitter 314 may be provided to different antenna(s)316. The transmitter 314 may modulate an RF carrier with a respectivespatial stream for transmission.

The uplink transmission is processed at the base station 304 in a mannersimilar to that described in connection with the receiver function atthe UE 302. The receiver 352 receives a signal through its respectiveantenna(s) 356. The receiver 352 recovers information modulated onto anRF carrier and provides the information to the processor 384.

In the uplink, the processor 384 provides demultiplexing betweentransport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, headerdecompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from theUE 302. IP packets from the processor 384 may be provided to the corenetwork. The processor 384 is also responsible for error detection.

For convenience, the UE 302, the base station 304, and/or the networkentity 306 are shown in FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C as including variouscomponents that may be configured according to the various examplesdescribed herein. It will be appreciated, however, that the illustratedcomponents may have different functionality in different designs.

The various components of the UE 302, the base station 304, and thenetwork entity 306 may communicate with each other over data buses 334,382, and 392, respectively. In an aspect, the data buses 334, 382, and392 may form, or be part of, a communication interface of the UE 302,the base station 304, and the network entity 306, respectively. Forexample, where different logical entities are embodied in the samedevice (e.g., gNB and location server functionality incorporated intothe same base station 304), the data buses 334, 382, and 392 may providecommunication between them.

The components of FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C may be implemented in variousways. In some implementations, the components of FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3Cmay be implemented in one or more circuits such as, for example, one ormore processors and/or one or more ASICs (which may include one or moreprocessors). Here, each circuit may use and/or incorporate at least onememory component for storing information or executable code used by thecircuit to provide this functionality. For example, some or all of thefunctionality represented by blocks 310 to 346 may be implemented byprocessor and memory component(s) of the UE 302 (e.g., by execution ofappropriate code and/or by appropriate configuration of processorcomponents). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented byblocks 350 to 388 may be implemented by processor and memorycomponent(s) of the base station 304 (e.g., by execution of appropriatecode and/or by appropriate configuration of processor components). Also,some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 390 to 398 may beimplemented by processor and memory component(s) of the network entity306 (e.g., by execution of appropriate code and/or by appropriateconfiguration of processor components). For simplicity, variousoperations, acts, and/or functions are described herein as beingperformed “by a UE,” “by a base station,” “by a network entity,” etc.However, as will be appreciated, such operations, acts, and/or functionsmay actually be performed by specific components or combinations ofcomponents of the UE 302, base station 304, network entity 306, etc.,such as the processors 332, 384, 394, the transceivers 310, 320, 350,and 360, the memories 340, 386, and 396, the positioning components 342,388, and 398, etc.

In some designs, the network entity 306 may be implemented as a corenetwork component. In other designs, the network entity 306 may bedistinct from a network operator or operation of the cellular networkinfrastructure (e.g., NG RAN 220 and/or 5GC 210/260). For example, thenetwork entity 306 may be a component of a private network that may beconfigured to communicate with the UE 302 via the base station 304 orindependently from the base station 304 (e.g., over a non-cellularcommunication link, such as WiFi).

NR supports a number of cellular network-based positioning technologies,including downlink-based, uplink-based, and downlink-and-uplink-basedpositioning methods. Downlink-based positioning methods include observedtime difference of arrival (OTDOA) in LTE, downlink time difference ofarrival (DL-TDOA) in NR, and downlink angle-of-departure (DL-AoD) in NR.In an OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, a UE measures thedifferences between the times of arrival (ToAs) of reference signals(e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS)) received from pairs of basestations, referred to as reference signal time difference (RSTD) or timedifference of arrival (TDOA) measurements, and reports them to apositioning entity. More specifically, the UE receives the identifiers(IDs) of a reference base station (e.g., a serving base station) andmultiple non-reference base stations in assistance data. The UE thenmeasures the RSTD between the reference base station and each of thenon-reference base stations. Based on the known locations of theinvolved base stations and the RSTD measurements, the positioning entitycan estimate the UE's location.

For DL-AoD positioning, the positioning entity uses a beam report fromthe UE of received signal strength measurements of multiple downlinktransmit beams to determine the angle(s) between the UE and thetransmitting base station(s). The positioning entity can then estimatethe location of the UE based on the determined angle(s) and the knownlocation(s) of the transmitting base station(s).

Uplink-based positioning methods include uplink time difference ofarrival (UL-TDOA) and uplink angle-of-arrival (UL-AoA). UL-TDOA issimilar to DL-TDOA, but is based on uplink reference signals (e.g.,sounding reference signals (SRS)) transmitted by the UE. For UL-AoApositioning, one or more base stations measure the received signalstrength of one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) receivedfrom a UE on one or more uplink receive beams. The positioning entityuses the signal strength measurements and the angle(s) of the receivebeam(s) to determine the angle(s) between the UE and the basestation(s). Based on the determined angle(s) and the known location(s)of the base station(s), the positioning entity can then estimate thelocation of the UE.

Downlink-and-uplink-based positioning methods include enhanced cell-ID(E-CID) positioning and multi-round-trip-time (RTT) positioning (alsoreferred to as “multi-cell RTT”). In an RTT procedure, an initiator (abase station or a UE) transmits an RTT measurement signal (e.g., a PRSor SRS) to a responder (a UE or base station), which transmits an RTTresponse signal (e.g., an SRS or PRS) back to the initiator. The RTTresponse signal includes the difference between the ToA of the RTTmeasurement signal and the transmission time of the RTT response signal,referred to as the reception-to-transmission (Rx-Tx) time difference.The initiator calculates the difference between the transmission time ofthe RTT measurement signal and the ToA of the RTT response signal,referred to as the transmission-to-reception (Tx-Rx) time difference.The propagation time (also referred to as the “time of flight”) betweenthe initiator and the responder can be calculated from the Tx-Rx andRx-Tx time differences. Based on the propagation time and the knownspeed of light, the distance between the initiator and the responder canbe determined. For multi-RTT positioning, a UE performs an RTT procedurewith multiple base stations to enable its location to be determined(e.g., using multilateration) based on the known locations of the basestations. RTT and multi-RTT methods can be combined with otherpositioning techniques, such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD, to improve locationaccuracy.

The E-CID positioning method is based on radio resource management (RRM)measurements. In E-CID, the UE reports the serving cell ID, the timingadvance (TA), and the identifiers, estimated timing, and signal strengthof detected neighbor base stations. The location of the UE is thenestimated based on this information and the known locations of the basestation(s).

To assist positioning operations, a location server (e.g., locationserver 230, LMF 270, SLP 272) may provide assistance data to the UE. Forexample, the assistance data may include identifiers of the basestations (or the cells/TRPs of the base stations) from which to measurereference signals, the reference signal configuration parameters (e.g.,the number of consecutive positioning subframes, periodicity ofpositioning subframes, muting sequence, frequency hopping sequence,reference signal identifier, reference signal bandwidth, etc.), and/orother parameters applicable to the particular positioning method.Alternatively, the assistance data may originate directly from the basestations themselves (e.g., in periodically broadcasted overheadmessages, etc.). in some cases, the UE may be able to detect neighbornetwork nodes itself without the use of assistance data.

In the case of an OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, the assistancedata may further include an expected RSTD value and an associateduncertainty, or search window, around the expected RSTD. In some cases,the value range of the expected RSTD may be +/−500 microseconds (μs). Insome cases, when any of the resources used for the positioningmeasurement are in FR1, the value range for the uncertainty of theexpected RSTD may be +/−32 μs. In other cases, when all of the resourcesused for the positioning measurement(s) are in FR2, the value range forthe uncertainty of the expected RSTD may be +/−8 μs.

A location estimate may be referred to by other names, such as aposition estimate, location, position, position fix, fix, or the like. Alocation estimate may be geodetic and comprise coordinates (e.g.,latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude) or may be civic and comprisea street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of alocation. A location estimate may further be defined relative to someother known location or defined in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude,longitude, and possibly altitude). A location estimate may include anexpected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volumewithin which the location is expected to be included with some specifiedor default level of confidence).

Various frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplinktransmissions between network nodes (e.g., base stations and UEs). FIG.4A is a diagram 400 illustrating an example of a downlink framestructure, according to aspects of the disclosure. FIG. 4B is a diagram430 illustrating an example of channels within the downlink framestructure, according to aspects of the disclosure. Other wirelesscommunications technologies may have different frame structures and/ordifferent channels.

LTE, and in some cases NR, utilizes OFDM on the downlink andsingle-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink.Unlike LTE, however, NR has an option to use OFDM on the uplink as well.OFDM and SC-FDM partition the system bandwidth into multiple (K)orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones,bins, etc. Each subcarrier may be modulated with data. In general,modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain with OFDM and in thetime domain with SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers may befixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) may be dependent on thesystem bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15kilohertz (kHz) and the minimum resource allocation (resource block) maybe 12 subcarriers (or 180 kHz). Consequently, the nominal FFT size maybe equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048 for system bandwidth of 1.25,2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidthmay also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16subbands for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 MHz,respectively.

LTE supports a single numerology (subcarrier spacing (SCS), symbollength, etc.). In contrast, NR may support multiple numerologies (μ),for example, subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz (μ=0), 30 kHz (μ=1), 60 kHz(μ=2), 120 kHz (μ=3), and 240 kHz (μ=4) or greater may be available. Ineach subcarrier spacing, there are 14 symbols per slot. For 15 kHz SCS(μ=0), there is one slot per subframe, 10 slots per frame, the slotduration is 1 millisecond (ms), the symbol duration is 66.7 microseconds(μs), and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFTsize is 50. For 30 kHz SCS (μ=1), there are two slots per subframe, 20slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.5 ms, the symbol duration is33.3 μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFTsize is 100. For 60 kHz SCS (μ2), there are four slots per subframe, 40slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.25 ms, the symbol duration is16.7 μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4K FFTsize is 200. For 120 kHz SCS (μ=3), there are eight slots per subframe,80 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.125 ms, the symbol durationis 8.33 μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4KFFT size is 400. For 240 kHz SCS (μ=4), there are 16 slots per subframe,160 slots per frame, the slot duration is 0.0625 ms, the symbol durationis 4.17 μs, and the maximum nominal system bandwidth (in MHz) with a 4KFFT size is 800.

In the example of FIGS. 4A and 4B, a numerology of 15 kHz is used. Thus,in the time domain, a 10 ms frame is divided into 10 equally sizedsubframes of 1 ms each, and each subframe includes one time slot. InFIGS. 4A and 4B, time is represented horizontally (on the X axis) withtime increasing from left to right, while frequency is representedvertically (on the Y axis) with frequency increasing (or decreasing)from bottom to top.

A resource grid may be used to represent time slots, each time slotincluding one or more time-concurrent resource blocks (RBs) (alsoreferred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) in the frequency domain. Theresource grid is further divided into multiple resource elements (REs).An RE may correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and onesubcarrier in the frequency domain. In the numerology of FIGS. 4A and4B, for a normal cyclic prefix, an RB may contain 12 consecutivesubcarriers in the frequency domain and seven consecutive symbols in thetime domain, for a total of 84 REs. For an extended cyclic prefix, an RBmay contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and sixconsecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 72 REs. Thenumber of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

Some of the REs carry downlink reference (pilot) signals (DL-RS). TheDL-RS may include positioning reference signals (PRS), trackingreference signals (TRS), phase tracking reference signals (TRS),cell-specific reference signals (CRS), channel state informationreference signals (CSI-RS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS),primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals(SSS), synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), etc. FIG. 4A illustratesexample locations of REs carrying PRS (labeled “R”).

A collection of resource elements (REs) that are used for transmissionof PRS is referred to as a “PRS resource.” The collection of resourceelements can span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and ‘N’ (such as1 or more) consecutive symbol(s) within a slot in the time domain. In agiven OFDM symbol in the time domain, a PRS resource occupiesconsecutive PRBs in the frequency domain.

The transmission of a PRS resource within a given PRB has a particularcomb size (also referred to as the “comb density”). A comb size ‘N’represents the subcarrier spacing (or frequency/tone spacing) withineach symbol of a PRS resource configuration. Specifically, for a combsize ‘N,’ PRS are transmitted in every Nth subcarrier of a symbol of aPRB. For example, for comb-4, for each symbol of the PRS resourceconfiguration, REs corresponding to every fourth subcarrier (such assubcarriers 0, 4, 8) are used to transmit PRS of the PRS resource.Currently, comb sizes of comb-2, comb-4, comb-6, and comb-12 aresupported for DL-PRS. FIG. 4A illustrates an example PRS resourceconfiguration for comb-6 (which spans six symbols). That is, thelocations of the shaded REs (labeled “R”) indicate a comb-6 PRS resourceconfiguration.

Currently, a DL-PRS resource may span 2, 4, 6, or 12 consecutive symbolswithin a slot with a fully frequency-domain staggered pattern. A DL-PRSresource can be configured in any higher layer configured downlink orflexible (FL) symbol of a slot. There may be a constant energy perresource element (EPRE) for all REs of a given DL-PRS resource. Thefollowing are the frequency offsets from symbol to symbol for comb sizes2, 4, 6, and 12 over 2, 4, 6, and 12 symbols. 2-symbol comb-2: {0, 1};4-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1}; 6-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1};12-symbol comb-2: {0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1}; 4-symbol comb-4:{0, 2, 1, 3}; 12-symbol comb-4: {0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 1, 3};6-symbol comb-6: {0, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5}; 12-symbol comb-6: {0, 3, 1, 4, 2,5, 0, 3, 1, 4, 2, 5}; and 12-symbol comb-12: {0, 6, 3, 9, 1, 7, 4, 10,2, 8, 5, 11}.

A “PRS resource set” is a set of PRS resources used for the transmissionof PRS signals, where each PRS resource has a PRS resource ID. Inaddition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set are associated withthe same TRP. A PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set IDand is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a TRP ID). Inaddition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set have the sameperiodicity (also referred to as “duty cycle”), a common muting patternconfiguration, and the same repetition factor (such as“PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor”) across slots. The periodicity is thetime from the first repetition of the first PRS resource of a first PRSinstance to the same first repetition of the same first PRS resource ofthe next PRS instance. The periodicity may have a length selected from2{circumflex over ( )}μ*{4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 32, 40, 64, 80, 160, 320,640, 1280, 2560, 5120, 10240} slots, with μ=0, 1, 2, 3. The repetitionfactor may have a length selected from {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32} slots.

A PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam(or beam ID) transmitted from a single TRP (where a TRP may transmit oneor more beams). That is, each PRS resource of a PRS resource set may betransmitted on a different beam, and as such, a “PRS resource,” orsimply “resource,” also can be referred to as a “beam.” Note that thisdoes not have any implications on whether the TRPs and the beams onwhich PRS are transmitted are known to the UE.

A “PRS instance” or “PRS occasion” is one instance of a periodicallyrepeated time window (such as a group of one or more consecutive slots)where PRS are expected to be transmitted. A PRS occasion also may bereferred to as a “PRS positioning occasion,” a “PRS positioninginstance,” a “positioning occasion,” “a positioning instance,” a“positioning repetition,” or simply an “occasion,” an “instance,” or a“repetition.”

A “positioning frequency layer” (also referred to simply as a “frequencylayer”) is a collection of one or more PRS resource sets across one ormore TRPs that have the same values for certain parameters.Specifically, the collection of PRS resource sets has the samesubcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix (CP) type (meaning all numerologiessupported for the PDSCH are also supported for PRS), the same Point A,the same value of the downlink PRS bandwidth, the same start PRB (andcenter frequency), and the same comb-size. The Point A parameter takesthe value of the parameter “ARFCN-ValueNR” (where “ARFCN” stands for“absolute radio-frequency channel number”) and is an identifier/codethat specifies a pair of physical radio channel used for transmissionand reception. The downlink PRS bandwidth may have a granularity of fourPRBs, with a minimum of 24 PRBs and a maximum of 272 PRBs. Currently, upto four frequency layers have been defined, and up to two PRS resourcesets may be configured per TRP per frequency layer.

The concept of a frequency layer is somewhat like the concept ofcomponent carriers and bandwidth parts (BWPs), but different in thatcomponent carriers and BWPs are used by one base station (or a macrocell base station and a small cell base station) to transmit datachannels, while frequency layers are used by several (usually three ormore) base stations to transmit PRS. A UE may indicate the number offrequency layers it can support when it sends the network itspositioning capabilities, such as during an LTE positioning protocol(LPP) session. For example, a UE may indicate whether it can support oneor four positioning frequency layers.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example of various channels within a downlinkslot of a radio frame. In NR, the channel bandwidth, or systembandwidth, is divided into multiple BWPs. A BWP is a contiguous set ofPRBs selected from a contiguous subset of the common RBs for a givennumerology on a given carrier. Generally, a maximum of four BWPs can bespecified in the downlink and uplink. That is, a UE can be configuredwith up to four BWPs on the downlink, and up to four BWPs on the uplink.Only one BWP (uplink or downlink) may be active at a given time, meaningthe UE may only receive or transmit over one BWP at a time. On thedownlink, the bandwidth of each BWP should be equal to or greater thanthe bandwidth of the SSB, but it may or may not contain the SSB.

Referring to FIG. 4B, a primary synchronization signal (PSS) is used bya UE to determine subframe/symbol timing and a physical layer identity.A secondary synchronization signal (SSS) is used by a UE to determine aphysical layer cell identity group number and radio frame timing. Basedon the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identitygroup number, the UE can determine a PCI. Based on the PCI, the UE candetermine the locations of the aforementioned DL-RS. The physicalbroadcast channel (PBCH), which carries an MIB, may be logically groupedwith the PSS and SSS to form an SSB (also referred to as an SS/PBCH).The MIB provides a number of RBs in the downlink system bandwidth and asystem frame number (SFN). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)carries user data, broadcast system information not transmitted throughthe PBCH, such as system information blocks (SIBs), and paging messages.

The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries downlink controlinformation (DCI) within one or more control channel elements (CCEs),each CCE including one or more RE group (REG) bundles (which may spanmultiple symbols in the time domain), each REG bundle including one ormore REGs, each REG corresponding to 12 resource elements (one resourceblock) in the frequency domain and one OFDM symbol in the time domain.The set of physical resources used to carry the PDCCH/DCI is referred toin NR as the control resource set (CORESET). In NR, a PDCCH is confinedto a single CORESET and is transmitted with its own DMRS. This enablesUE-specific beamforming for the PDCCH.

In the example of FIG. 4B, there is one CORESET per BWP, and the CORESETspans three symbols (although it may be only one or two symbols) in thetime domain. Unlike LTE control channels, which occupy the entire systembandwidth, in NR, PDCCH channels are localized to a specific region inthe frequency domain (i.e., a CORESET). Thus, the frequency component ofthe PDCCH shown in FIG. 4B is illustrated as less than a single BWP inthe frequency domain. Note that although the illustrated CORESET iscontiguous in the frequency domain, it need not be. In addition, theCORESET may span less than three symbols in the time domain.

The DCI within the PDCCH carries information about uplink resourceallocation (persistent and non-persistent) and descriptions aboutdownlink data transmitted to the UE, referred to as uplink and downlinkgrants, respectively. More specifically, the DCI indicates the resourcesscheduled for the downlink data channel (e.g., PDSCH) and the uplinkdata channel (e.g., PUSCH). Multiple (e.g., up to eight) DCIs can beconfigured in the PDCCH, and these DCIs can have one of multipleformats. For example, there are different DCI formats for uplinkscheduling, for downlink scheduling, for uplink transmit power control(TPC), etc. A PDCCH may be transported by 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs inorder to accommodate different DCI payload sizes or coding rates.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of an example PRS configuration 500 for the PRStransmissions of a given base station, according to aspects of thedisclosure. In FIG. 5 , time is represented horizontally, increasingfrom left to right. Each long rectangle represents a slot and each short(shaded) rectangle represents an OFDM symbol. In the example of FIG. 5 ,a PRS resource set 510 (labeled “PRS resource set 1”) includes two PRSresources, a first PRS resource 512 (labeled “PRS resource 1”) and asecond PRS resource 514 (labeled “PRS resource 2”). The base stationtransmits PRS on the PRS resources 512 and 514 of the PRS resource set510.

The PRS resource set 510 has an occasion length (N_PRS) of two slots anda periodicity (T_PRS) of, for example, 160 slots or 160 milliseconds(ms) (for 15 kHz subcarrier spacing). As such, both the PRS resources512 and 514 are two consecutive slots in length and repeat every T_PRSslots, starting from the slot in which the first symbol of therespective PRS resource occurs. In the example of FIG. 5 , the PRSresource 512 has a symbol length (N_symb) of two symbols, and the PRSresource 514 has a symbol length (N_symb) of four symbols. The PRSresource 512 and the PRS resource 514 may be transmitted on separatebeams of the same base station.

Each instance of the PRS resource set 510, illustrated as instances 520a, 520 b, and 520 c, includes an occasion of length ‘2’ (i.e., N_PRS=2)for each PRS resource 512, 514 of the PRS resource set. The PRSresources 512 and 514 are repeated every T_PRS slots up to the mutingsequence periodicity T_REP. As such, a bitmap of length T_REP would beneeded to indicate which occasions of instances 520 a, 520 b, and 520 cof PRS resource set 510 are muted (i.e., not transmitted).

In an aspect, there may be additional constraints on the PRSconfiguration 500. For example, for all PRS resources (e.g., PRSresources 512, 514) of a PRS resource set (e.g., PRS resource set 510),the base station can configure the following parameters to be the same:(a) the occasion length (T_PRS), (b) the number of symbols (N_symb), (c)the comb type, and/or (d) the bandwidth. In addition, for all PRSresources of all PRS resource sets, the subcarrier spacing and thecyclic prefix can be configured to be the same for one base station orfor all base stations. Whether it is for one base station or all basestations may depend on the UE's capability to support the first and/orsecond option.

With further reference to DL-PRS, DL-PRS have been defined for NRpositioning to enable UEs to detect and measure more neighboring TRPs.Several configurations are supported to enable a variety of deployments(e.g., indoor, outdoor, sub-6 GHz, mmW). In addition, beam sweeping issupported for PRS to support PRS beam operation. The following tableillustrates various types of reference signals that can be used forvarious positioning methods supported in NR.

TABLE 1 DL/UL Reference To support the following Signals UE Measurementspositioning techniques DL-PRS DL-RSTD DL-TDOA DL-PRS DL-PRS RSRPDL-TDOA, DL-AoD, Multi-RTT DL-PRS/SRS-for- UE Rx-Tx Multi-RTTpositioning SSB/CSI-RS for RRM Synchronization Signal E-CID (SS)-RSRP(RSRP for RRM), SS-RSRQ (for RRM), CSI-RSRP (for RRM), CSI-RSRQ (forRRM)

As noted above, NR supports various DL-PRS resource repetition and beamsweeping options. There are several purposes for the repetition of aDL-PRS resource, including (1) receive beam sweeping across repetitions,(2) combining gains for coverage extension, and (3) intra-instancemuting. The following table shows the parameters to configure PRSrepetition.

TABLE 2 Parameter Functionality PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor Number oftimes each PRS resource is repeated for a single instance of the PRSresource set. Values: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32 PRS-ResourceTimeGap Offsetin units of slots between two repeated instances of a DL-PRS resourcecorresponding to the same PRS resource ID within a single instance ofthe DL-PRS resource set. Values: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32

FIG. 6 is a diagram of example PRS resource sets having different timegaps, according to aspects of the disclosure. In the example of FIG. 6 ,time is represented horizontally and frequency is representedvertically. Each block represents a slot in the time domain and somebandwidth in the frequency domain.

FIG. 6 illustrates two DL-PRS resource set configurations, a firstDL-PRS resource set configuration 610 and a second DL-PRS resource setconfiguration 650. Each DL-PRS resource set configuration 610 and 650comprises four PRS resources (labeled “Resource 1,” “Resource 2,”“Resource 3,” and “Resource 4”) and has a repetition factor of four. Arepetition factor of four means that each of the four PRS resources isrepeated four times (i.e., is transmitted four times) within the DL-PRSresource set. That is, there are four repetitions of each of the fourPRS resources within the DL-PRS resource set.

The DL-PRS resource set configuration 610 has a time gap of one slot,meaning that each repetition of a PRS resource (e.g., “Resource 1”)starts on the first slot after the previous repetition of that PRSresource. Thus, as illustrated by DL-PRS resource set configuration 610,the four repetitions of each of the four PRS resources are groupedtogether. Specifically, the four repetitions of PRS resource “Resource1” occupy the first four slots (i.e., slots n to n+3) of the DL-PRSresource set configuration 610, the four repetitions of PRS resource“Resource 2” occupy the second four slots (i.e., slots n+4 to n+7), thefour repetitions of PRS resource “Resource 3” occupy the third fourslots (i.e., slots n+8 to n+11), and the four repetitions of PRSresource “Resource 4” occupy the last four slots (i.e., slots n+12 ton+15).

In contrast, the DL-PRS resource set configuration 650 has a time gap offour slots, meaning that each repetition of a PRS resource (e.g.,“Resource 2”) starts on the fourth slot after the previous repetition ofthat PRS resource. Thus, as illustrated by DL-PRS resource setconfiguration 650, the four repetitions of each of the four PRSresources are scheduled every fourth slot. For example, the fourrepetitions of PRS resource “Resource 1” occupy the first, fifth, ninth,and thirteenth slots (i.e., slots n, n+4, n+8, and n+12) of the DL-PRSresource set configuration 650.

Note that the time duration spanned by one DL-PRS resource setcontaining repeated DL-PRS resources, as illustrated in FIG. 6 , shouldnot exceed the PRS periodicity. In addition, UE receive beam sweeping,for receiving/measuring the DL-PRS resource set, is not specified, butrather, depends on UE implementation.

FIG. 7 is a diagram 700 of an example radio frequency (RF) signalprocessing procedure, according to various aspects of the disclosure. Inorder to identify the time of arrival (ToA) of an RF signal (e.g., apositioning reference signal (PRS)), the receiver (e.g., a UE) firstbuffers and then jointly processes all the resource elements (REs) onthe channel on which the transmitter (e.g., a base station) istransmitting the RF signal. The receiver then performs an inverseFourier transform (FFT) to convert the received RF signal to the timedomain. The conversion of the received RF signal to the time domain isreferred to as the estimation of the channel energy response (CER) orchannel impulse response (CIR). The CER shows the peaks on the channelover time, and the earliest “significant” peak should thereforecorrespond to the ToA of the RF signal. Generally, the receiver will usea noise-related quality threshold to filter out spurious local peaks,thereby presumably correctly identifying significant peaks on thechannel. For example, the receiver may choose a ToA estimate that is theearliest local maximum of the CER that is at least ‘X’ decibels (dB)higher than the median of the CER and a maximum ‘Y’ dB lower than themain peak on the channel.

Thus, with reference to FIG. 7 , at a fast Fourier transform (FFT) stage710, a receiver (e.g., any of the UEs described herein)receives/measures and buffers a time-domain RF signal (e.g., a PRS) andconverts it to a frequency-domain signal. At a correlation stage 720,the receiver generates a frequency-domain channel impulse response fromthe frequency-domain signal based on a descrambling sequence. At aninverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) stage 730, the receiver generatesa time-domain channel impulse response from the frequency-domain channelimpulse response output by the correlation stage 720. At an earliestpeak detection stage 740, the receiver generates a detection indicationand a ToA of the time-domain RF signal received at the FFT stage 710based on the time-domain channel impulse response received from the IFFTstage 730.

Where the receiver is a UE, the UE may receive the time-domain RF signalat one or more of antennas 316. The subsequent stages (i.e., FFT stage710, correlation stage 720, IFFT stage 730, earliest peak detectionstage 740) may be performed by the one or more receivers 312, the one ormore WWAN transceivers 310, and/or the one or more processors 332,depending on the hardware implementation of the UE. Similarly, where thereceiver is a base station, the base station may receive the time-domainRF signal at one or more of antennas 356. The subsequent stages may beperformed by the one or more receivers 352, the one or more WWANtransceivers 350, and/or the one or more processors 384, depending onthe hardware implementation of the base station.

As will be appreciated from the above, a receiver needs some amount oftime to buffer and process an RF signal, such as a PRS. The amount oftime needed may depend on various factors, such as the capabilities ofthe receiver, the number of REs carrying the RF signal, the bandwidth ofthe RF signal, and the like.

Buffering is needed because the receiver receives the RF signal overtime (e.g., over one or more symbols, slots, subframes, etc.), but thenneeds to process the RF signal on a per slot, per subframe, perresource, per instance, etc. basis. For example, where a UE is measuringa DL-PRS resource (comprising some number of symbols per slot over oneor more slots per instance) to determine the ToA of the PRS resource,the UE needs to buffer and then process at least all the symbols of theslot that may contain PRS REs in order to determine the ToA of the PRSresource. Thus, the receiver stores the received/measured RF signal in abuffer as it is received in order to then process the RF signal.

Referring to buffering and processing DL-PRS specifically, different UEshave various DL-PRS buffering and processing capabilities. For example,there is a limit on the maximum number of DL-PRS resources for all TRPsper some period of time that a UE can measure and process. The followingtable shows various parameters indicating a UE's capabilities.

TABLE 3 Maximum Values that can be Number of DL- Signaled as the UEDescription PRS Resources Capability Number of frequency layers (X1) X1= 4 Values = {1, 4} Number of TRPs per frequency X2 = 64 layer (X2)Number of PRS resource sets per X3 = 2 Values = {1, 2} TRP (X3) perfrequency layer Number of PRS resources per X4 = 64 PRS resource set(X4) Number of DL-PRS resources per NA UE (X5) Number of TRPs for all X6= 256 frequency layers (X6) per UE Number of PRS resources per NAfrequency layer (X7)

The following table shows various differences between PRS in LTE and NR.

TABLE 4 Parameter LTE PRS Baseline NR PRS Number of PRS Each TRP canEach TRP can configure X resources per TRP configure one PRS PRSresources every T ms. resource every T ms Example values: X = 64 forFR2, X = 8 for FR1 time division duplex (TDD) FFT Size 2K 4K Number ofOFDM 8 symbols per Up to 12 symbols per slot symbols with PRS persubframe with with repetition of 32 slots PRS resource repetition over 6subframes

As shown in the above tables, there are two separate capabilities forPRS processing, one related to the number of PRS resources and onerelated to the number of PRS symbols. These two capabilities may bereferred to as (1) a limit on the maximum number ‘N1’ of DL-PRSresources a UE is expected to measure across all TRPs and frequencylayers within a measurement window of ‘T1’ ms, reported as a list ofduplets {N1, T1}, and (2) a limit on the maximum number of symbols ‘N2’in milliseconds containing PRS resources of maximum bandwidth (e.g., 272PRBs) that a UE is expected to measure within a measurement window of‘T2’ ms, reported as a list of duplets {N2, T2}.

For the UE DL-PRS processing capability, it has been proposed that a UEreport one combination of (N, T) values per band, where ‘N’ is aduration of DL-PRS symbols in milliseconds that the UE can process every‘T’ ms for a given maximum bandwidth ‘B’ in MHz supported by the UE.Here, ‘N’ and ‘T’ correspond to ‘N2’ and ‘T2’ above. Additionally, a UEcan report the number of DL-PRS resources that the UE can process in aslot. This parameter may be reported per SCS per band. The reportednumber of DL-PRS resources that the UE can process in a slot is selectedfrom the set of {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64}. Currently, the following setsof values for ‘N,’ ‘T,’ and ‘B’ are supported: N={0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1,2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50} ms, T={8, 16, 20, 30, 40,80, 160, 320, 640, 1280} ms, and B={5, 10, 20, 40, 50, 80, 100, 200,400} MHz.

It has alternatively also been proposed that the reporting of (N, T)values for the maximum bandwidth ‘B’ in MHz not be dependent on the SCS.

It has further been proposed that a UE capability for simultaneousDL-PRS processing across positioning frequency layers not be supported.That is, for a UE supporting multiple positioning frequency layers, a UEis expected to process only one frequency layer at a time.

Yet another proposal is that the UE capability for DL-PRS processing(e.g., ‘N,’ ‘T’) be defined assuming that the UE is configured withmeasurement gaps. More specifically, the different potential UEcapabilities for DL-PRS processing may be defined with the assumptionthat the UE is configured with measurement gaps and a maximum ratio ofthe measurement gap length (MGL) to the measurement gap repetitionperiod (MGRP) of no more than ‘X’ percent (i.e., MGL/MGRP <=X %). Ameasurement gap is a period of time, configured by the serving basestation, during which the serving base station refrains fromtransmitting downlink data to the UE. The serving base station may alsorefrain from configuring the UE to transmit uplink data. In that way,during the measurement gap, the UE can measure DL-PRS from neighboringbase stations without interference from the serving base station.

If a UE requires measurement gaps to identify and measureintra-frequency cells and/or inter-frequency cells, and the UE does notsupport independent measurement gap patterns for different frequencyranges, the network may provide a single per-UE measurement gap patternfor concurrent monitoring of all frequency layers. If the UE requiresmeasurement gaps to identify and measure intra-frequency cells and/orinter-frequency cells, and the UE supports independent measurement gappatterns for different frequency ranges. the network may provide eithera per-frequency range measurement gap pattern for frequency ranges wherethe UE requires a per-frequency range measurement gap for concurrentmonitoring of all frequency layers of each frequency rangeindependently, or a single per-UE measurement gap pattern for concurrentmonitoring of all frequency layers of all frequency ranges. Thus, the UEmay be configured with an FR1 measurement gap pattern, an FR2measurement gap pattern, or a UE-specific measurement gap pattern.

FIG. 8 is a diagram 800 illustrating an example PRS instance, accordingto aspects of the disclosure. In FIG. 8 , time is representedhorizontally, and each block represents a slot (1 ms in length for 15kHz SCS) containing a PRS resource. The PRS resources may also bereferred to as PRS resource repetitions, or simply repetitions, since aspecific PRS resource is generally repeated some number of times withina PRS instance, as described above with reference to FIG. 6 . In theexample of FIG. 8 , the length of the illustrated PRS instance is 37 ms(i.e., N_PRS=37 ms) and the periodicity is 40 ms (i.e., T_PRS=40 ms).Every fourth slot contains a PRS resource, for a total of 10 PRSresource repetitions per PRS instance, meaning that within the 37 ms PRSinstance, there is a total length of PRS resources of 10 ms.

In the example of FIG. 8 , the PRS instance is almost as long as the PRSperiodicity, resulting in a very short gap between the last and firstPRS resource repetitions of adjacent PRS instances. Specifically, asshown in FIG. 8 , there is a gap of 3 ms between the end of the lastrepetition of the last PRS resource of one PRS instance to the firstrepetition of the first PRS resource of the next PRS instance. Thus,with reference to FIG. 7 , the UE would measure and buffer the PRSresources for the first 37 ms of the PRS periodicity and then processthe measured PRS resources in the last 3 ms of the PRS periodicity.

If the UE is configured with a measurement gap to measure theillustrated PRS instance, the length of the measurement gap would needto be at least 37 ms (i.e., MGL=37 ms) and the MGRP would need to be 40ms (i.e., MGRP=40 ms). In this scenario, there would only be the 3 ms atthe end of the 37 ms PRS instance for both PRS processing andcommunication with the serving base station. As would be appreciated,this is generally unacceptable.

Currently, only the measurement gap patterns listed in Table 5 aresupported. A UE determines measurement gap timing based on the gapoffset configuration and the measurement gap timing advanceconfiguration provided by higher layer signaling. With reference to FIG.8 and Table 5, since the length of the PRS instance is greater than themaximum MGL (i.e., 6 ms), the UE may be configured with the maximum MGL.Specifically, the UE may be configured with a 6 ms MGL and a 40 ms MGRP(to match the PRS periodicity). As such, the UE would only be able tomeasure PRS resources within the 6 ms measurement gap.

TABLE 5 Gap Pattern Measurement Gap Measurement Gap ID Length (MGL, ms)Repetition Period (MGRP, ms) 0 6 40 1 6 80 2 3 40 3 3 80 4 6 20 5 6 1606 4 20 7 4 40 8 4 80 9 4 160 10 3 20 11 3 160 12 5.5 20 13 5.5 40 14 5.580 15 5.5 160 16 3.5 20 17 3.5 40 18 3.5 80 19 3.5 160 20 1.5 20 21 1.540 22 1.5 80 23 1.5 160

It has been proposed to add a limited number of new measurement gappatterns. Possible candidates include measurement gaps with an MGL of{10, 20, 40, 50} ms and an MGRP of {80, 160, 320, 640} ms.

A UE may not always be configured with measurement gaps. Duringmeasurement gaps, as noted above, there is no other communication, whichincreases latency and reduces throughput to the UE. This can beproblematic for low latency data traffic, such as ultra-reliable lowlatency communication (URLLC) traffic. When a UE is not configured withmeasurement gaps, it needs to report its capability to buffer andprocess inter-frequency PRS resources without the assistance ofmeasurement gaps.

The present disclosure provides techniques for determining the minimumPRS processing capability of a UE when the UE is not configured withmeasurement gaps. With respect to PRS processing without measurementgaps, there are several options for the worst-case scenario for the PRSinstance length per PRS periodicity length (e.g., 37 ms per 40 ms in theexample of FIG. 8 ), or, said another way, the ratio of the PRS instancelength to the PRS periodicity length (e.g., N_PRS/T_PRS).

As a first option, the PRS instance length per PRS periodicity lengthmay be as much as the worst-case for the MGL per MGRP (i.e., MGL/MGRP)when measurement gaps are configured. For example, from Table 5 above,the worst-case scenario is an MGL of 6 ms and an MGRP of 20 ms.

As a second option, the UE may report a separate capability for themaximum PRS instance length per PRS periodicity length that it canprocess when measurement gaps are not configured. That is, there may beone capability for when measurement gaps are configured and anothercapability for when measurement gaps are not configured.

As a third option, there may be a minimum gap between the lastrepetition of the last PRS resource of a PRS instance to the firstrepetition of a first PRS resource of the subsequent PRS instance (e.g.,the 3 ms gap illustrated in FIG. 8 ). As a first sub-option, the minimumgap may be between the last repetition of the last PRS resource of a PRSinstance and the first repetition of a first PRS resource of thesubsequent PRS instance of the same frequency layer. Alternatively, as asecond sub-option, the minimum gap may be between the last repetition ofthe last PRS resource of a PRS instance and the first repetition of afirst PRS resource of the subsequent PRS instance across all frequencylayers. The minimum gap may depend on the SCS, or slot duration, oradditional reported UE capability(ies). In this option, the UE would notbe expected to process PRS resources that are closer than the minimumgap to the upcoming start of a PRS instance. The minimum gap may beequal to the minimum MGRP minus the MGL specified, or may be based onthe MGL and MGRP supported by the UE.

As a fourth option, the worst-case scenario for the PRS instance lengthper PRS periodicity length (e.g., N_PRS/T_PRS) may be a factor (e.g.,less than ‘1’) of the MGL per MGRP or the MGRP minus the MGL. Forexample, it may be 50% of the worst-case MGL per MGRP. That is, the PRSinstance length per PRS periodicity length may be less than or equal to0.5 times the worst-case MGL per MGRP.

As another technique for when measurement gaps are not configured, a UEmay report the minimum number of PRS resources per slot that it cansupport. As a first option, the minimum number of PRS resources per slotmay depend on the SCS as follows: (1) 16 PRS resource per slot in 15 kHzSCS, (2) eight PRS resource per slot in 30 kHz SCS, (3) four PRSresources per slot in 60 kHz SCS (for both FR1 and FR2), and (4) two PRSresource per slot in 120 kHz SCS. It may depend on the SCS by a scalingfactor for different SCS. For example, for a first SCS (denoted “SCS1”)with ‘X’ PRS resources per slot supported as a minimum number of PRSresources per slot, then a second SCS (denoted “SCS2”) may equal “SCS1”times ‘K’ for values of ‘K’ greater than ‘1,’ and a UE may support ‘X’per ‘K’ PRS resources per slot at a minimum.

As a second option, the minimum number of PRS resources per slot may bea fixed number for FR1 and FR2 independent of the SCS inside FR1 andFR2. For example, it may be 16 PRS resources per slot in FR1, for allSCSs supported in FR1, and two PRS resources per slot in FR2, for allSCSs supported in FR2.

As a third option, the minimum number of PRS resources per slot may besmaller than (e.g., a fraction of) the reported value when measurementgaps are configured. For example, if the UE reports that it can process16 PRS resources per slot when measurement gaps are configured, then itmay be expected to support eight (0.5×16=8) PRS resources per slot ifmeasurement gaps are not configured.

As another technique for when measurement gaps are not configured, theminimum number of PRS symbols ‘N’ in a window of ‘T’ ms, also referredto as the (N, T) capability, may be based on the available MGLconfigurations and the MGRP configurations. As a first option, theminimum number of PRS symbols ‘N’ that the UE can buffer may be the sameas the smallest currently-specified MGL. As shown in Table 5, that is1.5 ms. As a second option, the minimum number of PRS symbols ‘N’ thatthe UE can process within a window of ‘T’ ms, may be the same as thelargest MGL that the UE can support for FR1 and FR2 separately. Forexample, if the UE reports a capability of MGLs equal to 6 ms, then ‘N’would also be 6 ms.

With regards to the value of ‘T’ that is assumed when measurement gapsare not configured, as a first option, the value of ‘T’ may be theminimum MGRP from Table 5 that is larger than the value of ‘T’ thatwould be reported when measurement gaps are configured. As a secondoption, the value of ‘T’ may be a chosen MGRP for FR1 and FR2separately. As a third option, the minimum length of the measurementwindow ‘T’ may be the same as the largest MGRP the UE supports for FR1and FR2 separately. As a fourth option, the minimum length of themeasurement window ‘T’ may be the same as the largest MGRP in Table 5,that is, 160 ms.

In an aspect, when measurement gaps are not configured, for a differentPRS periodicity, a different number of PRS symbols in milliseconds a UEis assumed to support may be equal to (1) one of the combination of thesupported (MGL, MGRP) patterns in Table 5, or (2) the (N, T) that isequal to all the supported (MGL, MGRP) patterns in FR1 and FR2separately.

In an aspect, when measurement gaps are not configured, (N, T) may beselected such that all UEs must support, for different SCS or FR1/FR2,(1) values of ‘N’ selected from {0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16,20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50} ms, or (2) values of ‘T’ selected from {8,16, 20, 30, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280} ms. In addition, the maximumbandwidth ‘B’ supported by the UE may be the same as the one reportedwhen measurement gaps are configured.

In an aspect, a UE may report the above-described capabilities to alocation server in one or more LPP messages (e.g., an LPP ReportCapabilities message), or to the serving base station in one or more RRCmessages, one or more MAC control elements (MAC-CEs), or uplink controlinformation (UCI).

FIG. 9 illustrates an example method 900 of wireless communication,according to aspects of the disclosure. In an aspect, method X00 may beperformed by a UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

At 910, the UE transmits, to a network entity (e.g., a location server,a serving base station), one or more capability messages indicating oneor more capabilities of the UE to process PRS, the one or morecapabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE canprocess within a measurement window without a measurement gap. In anaspect, operation 910 may be performed by the one or more WWANtransceivers 310, the one or more processors 332, memory 340, and/orpositioning component 342, any or all of which may be considered meansfor performing this operation.

At 920, the UE performs one or more positioning measurements of one ormore PRS resources during the measurement window up to the duration ofPRS. In an aspect, operation 920 may be performed by the one or moreWWAN transceivers 310, the one or more processors 332, memory 340,and/or positioning component 342, any or all of which may be consideredmeans for performing this operation.

As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of the method 900 isenabling a UE to report, and then be configured with, PRS instances thatthe UE is capable of measuring without measurement gaps.

In the detailed description above it can be seen that different featuresare grouped together in examples. This manner of disclosure should notbe understood as an intention that the example clauses have morefeatures than are explicitly mentioned in each clause. Rather, thevarious aspects of the disclosure may include fewer than all features ofan individual example clause disclosed. Therefore, the following clausesshould hereby be deemed to be incorporated in the description, whereineach clause by itself can stand as a separate example. Although eachdependent clause can refer in the clauses to a specific combination withone of the other clauses, the aspect(s) of that dependent clause are notlimited to the specific combination. It will be appreciated that otherexample clauses can also include a combination of the dependent clauseaspect(s) with the subject matter of any other dependent clause orindependent clause or a combination of any feature with other dependentand independent clauses. The various aspects disclosed herein expresslyinclude these combinations, unless it is explicitly expressed or can bereadily inferred that a specific combination is not intended (e.g.,contradictory aspects, such as defining an element as both an insulatorand a conductor). Furthermore, it is also intended that aspects of aclause can be included in any other independent clause, even if theclause is not directly dependent on the independent clause.

Implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

Clause 1. A method of wireless communication performed by a userequipment (UE), comprising: transmitting, to a network entity, one ormore capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UEto process positioning reference signals (PRS), the one or morecapabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE canprocess within a measurement window without a measurement gap; andperforming one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRSresources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS.

Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein: the duration of PRS isrelated to the PRS instance length, and the measurement window isrelated to a PRS periodicity.

Clause 3. The method of clause 2, wherein a ratio of the PRS instancelength to the PRS periodicity is equal to a ratio of a measurement gaplength to a measurement gap repetition periodicity that the UE cansupport when measurement gaps are configured.

Clause 4. The method of any of clauses 2 to 3, wherein the one or morecapabilities further indicate a PRS instance length and a PRSperiodicity that the UE can process with a measurement gap.

Clause 5. The method of any of clauses 1 to 4, wherein the one or morecapabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a lastPRS resource of a PRS instance to a first repetition of a first PRSresource of a subsequent PRS instance.

Clause 6. The method of clause 5, wherein the last repetition of thelast PRS resource of the PRS instance and the first repetition of thefirst PRS resource of the subsequent PRS instance are on the samefrequency layer.

Clause 7. The method of clause 5, wherein the last repetition of thelast PRS resource of the PRS instance and the first repetition of thefirst PRS resource of the subsequent PRS instance are on differentfrequency layers.

Clause 8. The method of any of clauses 5 to 7, wherein the minimum gapdepends on a subcarrier spacing or slot duration of the last repetitionof the last PRS resource of the PRS instance and the first repetition ofthe first PRS resource of the subsequent PRS instance.

Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 5 to 8, wherein the UE is notexpected to process

PRS resources that are closer than the minimum gap to the subsequent PRSinstance.

Clause 10. The method of any of clauses 5 to 9, wherein the minimum gapequals a ratio of a measurement gap length to a measurement gaprepetition periodicity.

Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 2 to 10, wherein a ratio of thePRS instance length to the PRS periodicity is a factor of a ratio of ameasurement gap length to a measurement gap repetition periodicity.

Clause 12. The method of clause 1, wherein: the duration of PRS isindicated as a number of PRS resources, and the measurement window is aslot.

Clause 13. The method of clause 12, wherein a minimum of the number ofPRS resources within the slot is based on a subcarrier spacing of theslot.

Clause 14. The method of clause 13, wherein the minimum of the number ofPRS resources within the slot comprises: 16 PRS resources for 15kilohertz (kHz) subcarrier spacing, 8 PRS resources for 30 kHzsubcarrier spacing, 4 PRS resources for 60 kHz subcarrier spacing, and 2PRS resources for 120 kHz subcarrier spacing.

Clause 15. The method of clause 13, wherein the minimum of the number ofPRS resources within the slot comprises: 16 PRS resources for frequencyrange 1 (FR1), and 2 PRS resources for frequency range 2 (FR2).

Clause 16. The method of any of clauses 12 to 15, wherein the minimum ofthe number of PRS resources within the slot is smaller than the numberof PRS resources within the slot that the UE can support whenmeasurement gaps are configured.

Clause 17. The method of clause 1, wherein: the duration of PRS isindicated as a number of PRS symbols ‘N,’ and the measurement window isindicated as a number of milliseconds ‘T.’

Clause 18. The method of clause 17, wherein a minimum of the number ofPRS symbols ‘N’ is equal to a smallest measurement gap length the UE cansupport.

Clause 19. The method of clause 17, wherein a minimum of the number ofPRS symbols ‘N’ is equal to a largest measurement gap length the UE cansupport.

Clause 20. The method of clause 19, wherein the minimum of the number ofPRS symbols ‘N’ is based on whether the PRS are in FR1 or FR2.

Clause 21. The method of any of clauses 17 to 20, wherein the number ofmilliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a smallest measurement gap repetitionperiodicity larger than a second number of milliseconds ‘T’ the UEsupports when measurement gaps are supported.

Clause 22. The method of clause 17 to 20, wherein the number ofmilliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a first measurement gap repetitionperiodicity for FR1 or a second measurement gap repetition periodicityfor FR2.

Clause 23. The method of clause 17 to 20, wherein the number ofmilliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a largest measurement gap repetitionperiodicity that the UE supports for FR1 or FR2.

Clause 24. The method of clause 17 to 20, wherein the number ofmilliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a largest measurement gap repetitionperiodicity that the UE supports.

Clause 25. The method of any of clauses 17 to 24, wherein: the number ofPRS symbols ‘N’ is equal to a measurement gap length, and the number ofmilliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a measurement gap repetition periodicity.

Clause 26. The method of clause 25, wherein the measurement gap lengthand the measurement gap repetition periodicity are based on whether thePRS are in FR1 or FR2.

Clause 27. The method of any of clauses 17 to 26, wherein: values of ‘N’are selected from a set of {0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20,25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50} ms, and values of ‘T’ are selected from a set of{8, 16, 20, 30, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280} ms.

Clause 28. The method of any of clauses 1 to 27, wherein a maximumbandwidth supported by the UE when measurement gaps are not configuredis the same as when measurement gaps are configured.

Clause 29. The method of any of clauses 1 to 28, wherein: the networkentity is a location server, and the one or more capability messagescomprise one or more Long-Term Evolution (LTE) positioning protocol(LPP) messages.

Clause 30. The method of any of clauses 1 to 28, wherein: the networkentity is a serving base station, and the one or more capabilitymessages comprise one or more radio resource control (RRC) messages, oneor more medium access control control elements (MAC-CEs), or uplinkcontrol information.

Clause 31. An apparatus comprising a memory, at least one transceiver,and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and theat least one transceiver, the memory, the at least one transceiver, andthe at least one processor configured to perform a method according toany of clauses 1 to 30.

Clause 32. An apparatus comprising means for performing a methodaccording to any of clauses 1 to 30.

Clause 33. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-executable instructions, the computer-executable comprising atleast one instruction for causing a computer or processor to perform amethod according to any of clauses 1 to 30.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that information and signalsmay be represented using any of a variety of different technologies andtechniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information,signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout theabove description may be represented by voltages, currents,electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields orparticles, or any combination thereof.

Further, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the variousillustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm stepsdescribed in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may beimplemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinationsof both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware andsoftware, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits,and steps have been described above generally in terms of theirfunctionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware orsoftware depends upon the particular application and design constraintsimposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement thedescribed functionality in varying ways for each particular application,but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing adeparture from the scope of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits describedin connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an ASIC, a field-programable gate array (FPGA), or otherprogrammable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discretehardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform thefunctions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be amicroprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be anyconventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. Aprocessor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices,for example, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality ofmicroprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSPcore, or any other such configuration.

The methods, sequences and/or algorithms described in connection withthe aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in asoftware module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two.A software module may reside in random access memory (RAM), flashmemory, read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, hard disk, aremovable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known inthe art. An example storage medium is coupled to the processor such thatthe processor can read information from, and write information to, thestorage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integralto the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in anASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., UE). In thealternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discretecomponents in a user terminal.

In one or more example aspects, the functions described may beimplemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof.If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on ortransmitted over as one or more instructions or code on acomputer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computerstorage media and communication media including any medium thatfacilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Astorage media may be any available media that can be accessed by acomputer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readablemedia can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical diskstorage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or anyother medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code inthe form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed bya computer. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readablemedium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website,server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologiessuch as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiberoptic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such asinfrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium.Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc,optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray discwhere disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproducedata optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also beincluded within the scope of computer-readable media.

While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative aspects of thedisclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modificationscould be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosureas defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and/or actionsof the method claims in accordance with the aspects of the disclosuredescribed herein need not be performed in any particular order.Furthermore, although elements of the disclosure may be described orclaimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation tothe singular is explicitly stated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of wireless communication performed by auser equipment (UE), comprising: transmitting, to a network entity, oneor more capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of theUE to process positioning reference signals (PRS), the one or morecapabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE canprocess within a measurement window without a measurement gap; andperforming one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRSresources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS,wherein the duration of PRS is related to a PRS instance length, themeasurement window is related to a PRS periodicity and wherein a ratioof the PRS instance length to the PRS periodicity is equal to a ratio ofa measurement gap length to a measurement gap repetition periodicitythat the UE can support when measurement gaps are configured.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the one or more capabilities further indicatea PRS instance length and a PRS periodicity that the UE can process witha measurement gap.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein a ratio of the PRSinstance length to the PRS periodicity is a factor of a ratio of ameasurement gap length to a measurement gap repetition periodicity. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein a maximum bandwidth supported by the UEwhen measurement gaps are not configured is the same as when measurementgaps are configured.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein: the networkentity is a location server, and the one or more capability messagescomprise one or more Long-Term Evolution (LTE) positioning protocol(LPP) messages.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein: the network entity isa serving base station, and the one or more capability messages compriseone or more radio resource control (RRC) messages, one or more mediumaccess control control elements (MAC-CEs), or uplink controlinformation.
 7. A method of wireless communication performed by a userequipment (UE), comprising: transmitting, to a network entity, one ormore capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UEto process positioning reference signals (PRS), the one or morecapabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE canprocess within a measurement window without a measurement gap; andperforming one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRSresources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS,wherein the one or more capabilities indicate a minimum gap between alast repetition of a last PRS resource of a PRS instance to a firstrepetition of a first PRS resource of a subsequent PRS instance, andwherein the minimum gap equals a ratio of a measurement gap length to ameasurement gap repetition periodicity.
 8. The method of claim 7,wherein the last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instanceand the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the subsequent PRSinstance are on the same frequency layer.
 9. The method of claim 7,wherein the last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instanceand the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the subsequent PRSinstance are on different frequency layers.
 10. The method of claim 7,wherein the minimum gap depends on a subcarrier spacing or slot durationof the last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instance andthe first repetition of the first PRS resource of the subsequent PRSinstance.
 11. The method of claim 7, wherein the UE is not expected toprocess PRS resources that are closer than the minimum gap to thesubsequent PRS instance.
 12. A method of wireless communicationperformed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: transmitting, to anetwork entity, one or more capability messages indicating one or morecapabilities of the UE to process positioning reference signals (PRS),the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS thatthe UE can process within a measurement window without a measurementgap; and performing one or more positioning measurements of one or morePRS resources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS,wherein: the duration of PRS is indicated as a number of PRS resources,and the measurement window is a slot, and wherein a minimum of thenumber of PRS resources within the slot is smaller than the number ofPRS resources within the slot that the UE can support when measurementgaps are configured.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein a minimum ofthe number of PRS resources within the slot is based on a subcarrierspacing of the slot.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the minimum ofthe number of PRS resources within the slot comprises: 16 PRS resourcesfor 15 kilohertz (kHz) subcarrier spacing, 8 PRS resources for 30 kHzsubcarrier spacing, 4 PRS resources for 60 kHz subcarrier spacing, and 2PRS resources for 120 kHz subcarrier spacing.
 15. The method of claim13, wherein the minimum of the number of PRS resources within the slotcomprises: 16 PRS resources for frequency range 1 (FR1), and 2 PRSresources for frequency range 2 (FR2).
 16. A method of wirelesscommunication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:transmitting, to a network entity, one or more capability messagesindicating one or more capabilities of the UE to process positioningreference signals (PRS), the one or more capabilities indicating atleast a duration of PRS that the UE can process within a measurementwindow without a measurement gap; and performing one or more positioningmeasurements of one or more PRS resources during the measurement windowup to the duration of PRS, wherein: the duration of PRS is indicated asa number of PRS symbols ‘N,’ and the measurement window is indicated asa number of milliseconds ‘T’, and wherein: (a) the number ofmilliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a first measurement gap repetitionperiodicity for FR1 or a second measurement gap repetition periodicityfor FR2; or (b) the number of milliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a largestmeasurement gap repetition periodicity that the UE supports for FR1 orFR2; or (c) the number of milliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a largestmeasurement gap repetition periodicity that the UE supports; or (d) thenumber of PRS symbols ‘N’ is equal to a measurement gap length and thenumber of milliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a measurement gap repetitionperiodicity.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein a minimum of the numberof PRS symbols ‘N’ is equal to a smallest measurement gap length the UEcan support.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein a minimum of the numberof PRS symbols ‘N’ is equal to a largest measurement gap length the UEcan support.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the minimum of thenumber of PRS symbols ‘N’ is based on whether the PRS are in FR1 or FR2.20. The method of claim 16, wherein the number of milliseconds ‘T’ isequal to a smallest measurement gap repetition periodicity larger than asecond number of milliseconds ‘T’ the UE supports when measurement gapsare supported.
 21. The method of claim 16, wherein the measurement gaplength and the measurement gap repetition periodicity are based onwhether the PRS are in FR1 or FR2.
 22. The method of claim 16, wherein:values of ‘N’ are selected from a set of {0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8,12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50} ms, and values of ‘T’ are selectedfrom a set of {8, 16, 20, 30, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280} ms.
 23. Auser equipment (UE), comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; andat least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the atleast one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: causethe at least one transceiver to transmit, to a network entity, one ormore capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UEto process positioning reference signals (PRS), the one or morecapabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE canprocess within a measurement window without a measurement gap; andperform one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRSresources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS,wherein the duration of PRS is related to a PRS instance length, themeasurement window is related to a PRS periodicity and wherein a ratioof the PRS instance length to the PRS periodicity is equal to a ratio ofa measurement gap length to a measurement gap repetition periodicitythat the UE can support when measurement gaps are configured.
 24. The UEof claim 23, wherein the one or more capabilities further indicate a PRSinstance length and a PRS periodicity that the UE can process with ameasurement gap.
 25. The UE of claim 23, wherein the one or morecapabilities indicate a minimum gap between a last repetition of a lastPRS resource of a PRS instance to a first repetition of a first PRSresource of a subsequent PRS instance.
 26. The UE of claim 25, whereinthe last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instance and thefirst repetition of the first PRS resource of the subsequent PRSinstance are on the same frequency layer.
 27. The UE of claim 25,wherein the last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instanceand the first repetition of the first PRS resource of the subsequent PRSinstance are on different frequency layers.
 28. The UE of claim 25,wherein the minimum gap depends on a subcarrier spacing or slot durationof the last repetition of the last PRS resource of the PRS instance andthe first repetition of the first PRS resource of the subsequent PRSinstance.
 29. The UE of claim 25, wherein the UE is not expected toprocess PRS resources that are closer than the minimum gap to thesubsequent PRS instance.
 30. The UE of claim 25, wherein the minimum gapequals a ratio of a measurement gap length to a measurement gaprepetition periodicity.
 31. The UE of claim 23, wherein a ratio of thePRS instance length to the PRS periodicity is a factor of a ratio of ameasurement gap length to a measurement gap repetition periodicity. 32.The UE of claim 23, wherein a maximum bandwidth supported by the UE whenmeasurement gaps are not configured is the same as when measurement gapsare configured.
 33. The UE of claim 23, wherein: the network entity is alocation server, and the one or more capability messages comprise one ormore Long-Term Evolution (LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) messages. 34.The UE of claim 23, wherein: the network entity is a serving basestation, and the one or more capability messages comprise one or moreradio resource control (RRC) messages, one or more medium access controlcontrol elements (MAC-CEs), or uplink control information.
 35. A userequipment (UE), comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and atleast one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the atleast one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: causethe at least one transceiver to transmit, to a network entity, one ormore capability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UEto process positioning reference signals (PRS), the one or morecapabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE canprocess within a measurement window without a measurement gap; andperform one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRSresources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS,wherein: the duration of PRS is indicated as a number of PRS resources,and the measurement window is a slot, and wherein a minimum of thenumber of PRS resources within the slot is smaller than the number ofPRS resources within the slot that the UE can support when measurementgaps are configured.
 36. The UE of claim 35, wherein a minimum of thenumber of PRS resources within the slot is based on a subcarrier spacingof the slot.
 37. The UE of claim 36, wherein the minimum of the numberof PRS resources within the slot comprises: 16 PRS resources for 15kilohertz (kHz) subcarrier spacing, 8 PRS resources for 30 kHzsubcarrier spacing, 4 PRS resources for 60 kHz subcarrier spacing, and 2PRS resources for 120 kHz subcarrier spacing.
 38. The UE of claim 36,wherein the minimum of the number of PRS resources within the slotcomprises: 16 PRS resources for frequency range 1 (FR1), and 2 PRSresources for frequency range 2 (FR2).
 39. A user equipment (UE),comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least oneprocessor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least onetransceiver, the at least one processor configured to: cause the atleast one transceiver to transmit, to a network entity, one or morecapability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE toprocess positioning reference signals (PRS), the one or morecapabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE canprocess within a measurement window without a measurement gap; andperform one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRSresources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS,wherein the duration of PRS is indicated as a number of PRS symbols ‘N,’and the measurement window is indicated as a number of milliseconds ‘T,and wherein: (a) the number of milliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a firstmeasurement gap repetition periodicity for FR1 or a second measurementgap repetition periodicity for FR2; or (b) the number of milliseconds‘T’ is equal to a largest measurement gap repetition periodicity thatthe UE supports for FR1 or FR2; or (c) the number of milliseconds ‘T’ isequal to a largest measurement gap repetition periodicity that the UEsupports; or (d) the number of PRS symbols ‘N’ is equal to a measurementgap length and the number of milliseconds ‘T’ is equal to a measurementgap repetition periodicity.
 40. The UE of claim 39, wherein a minimum ofthe number of PRS symbols ‘N’ is equal to a smallest measurement gaplength the UE can support.
 41. The UE of claim 39, wherein a minimum ofthe number of PRS symbols ‘N’ is equal to a largest measurement gaplength the UE can support.
 42. The UE of claim 41, wherein the minimumof the number of PRS symbols ‘N’ is based on whether the PRS are in FR1or FR2.
 43. The UE of claim 39, wherein the number of milliseconds ‘T’is equal to a smallest measurement gap repetition periodicity largerthan a second number of milliseconds ‘T’ the UE supports whenmeasurement gaps are supported.
 44. The UE of claim 39, wherein themeasurement gap length and the measurement gap repetition periodicityare based on whether the PRS are in FR1 or FR2.
 45. The UE of claim 39,wherein: values of ‘N’ are selected from a set of {0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1,2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50} ms, and values of ‘T’ areselected from a set of {8, 16, 20, 30, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280} ms.46. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for transmitting, to anetwork entity, one or more capability messages indicating one or morecapabilities of the UE to process positioning reference signals (PRS),the one or more capabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS thatthe UE can process within a measurement window without a measurementgap; and means for performing one or more positioning measurements ofone or more PRS resources during the measurement window up to theduration of PRS, wherein the duration of PRS is related to a PRSinstance length, the measurement window is related to a PRS periodicityand wherein a ratio of the PRS instance length to the PRS periodicity isequal to a ratio of a measurement gap length to a measurement gaprepetition periodicity that the UE can support when measurement gaps areconfigured.
 47. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment(UE), cause the UE to: transmit, to a network entity, one or morecapability messages indicating one or more capabilities of the UE toprocess positioning reference signals (PRS), the one or morecapabilities indicating at least a duration of PRS that the UE canprocess within a measurement window without a measurement gap; andperform one or more positioning measurements of one or more PRSresources during the measurement window up to the duration of PRS,wherein the duration of PRS is related to a PRS instance length, themeasurement window is related to a PRS periodicity and wherein a ratioof the PRS instance length to the PRS periodicity is equal to a ratio ofa measurement gap length to a measurement gap repetition periodicitythat the UE can support when measurement gaps are configured.